&
"I" 7 ? r
[POPULAR MUSIC
OF THE
I .OLDEN TIME;
A COLLECTION OF
j ANCIENT SONGS, BALLADS,
AND
4 DANCE TUNES, .' ; ' , '
ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE
NATIONAL MUSIC OF ENGLAND
WITH SHORT INTRODUCTIONS TO THE DIFFERENT REIGNS,
AND NOTICES OF THE AIRS FROM WRITERS OF THE
SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES.
ALSO
A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE MINSTRELS.
BY
W. CHAPPELL, F.S.A.
THE WHOLE OF THE AIRS HARMONIZED BY G. A. MACFARREN.
VOL. II.
" Prout tmt ill! Anglican! concentus suavissimi quidem, ac elegantes."
Thesaurus Harmonious LAVRENCINI, Romani, 1603.
LONDON :
CRAMER, BEALE, & CHAPPELL, 20!, REGENT STREET.
3652-
CONTENTS OF VOL. II.
.Conjectures as to Robin Hood . . . . . 387
Ballads relating to the adventures of Robin Hood . '. 391 to 400
Puritanism in its effects upon Music and its accessories, and Introduction to the
Commonwealth period v| . . 401 to 424
Songs and ballads of the civil war, and of the time of Cromwell . 425 to 466
Introduction to the reign of Charles II. . . . . 467
Songs and ballads from Charles II. to William and Mary . . 491 to 608
Remarks on Anglo-Scottish songs. .... 609 to 616
Specimens of ditto . . < . . .' 617 to 620
Introduction to the reigns of Queen Anne, George I., and George II. . 621 to 632
Songs and ballads of ditto . . . . 633 to 726
Traditional songs of uncertain date ^". 727 to 749
Religious Christmas Carols . .' . . . 750 to 758
Appendix, consisting of additions to the Introductions, and of further remarks
upon the tunes included in both volumes . .... 759 to 788
Characteristics of National English Airs, and summary . . 789 to 797
POPULAR MUSIC
OF THE OLDEN TIME.
ROBIN HOOD.
OP all the sources from which the fertile muse of the English ballad-maker has
derived its subjects, no one has proved more inexhaustible, or more universally
acceptable to the hearers, than the life and adventures of Robin Hood ; and it is
indeed singular that an outlaw of so early a time " should continue traditionally
popular, be chanted in ballads, have given rise to numerous proverbs, and still
be l familiar in our mouth as household words,' in the nineteenth century.' "
" In this our spacious isle, I think there is not one
But he hath heard some talk of him and Little John ;
And, to the end of time, the tales shall ne'er be done
Of Scarlock, George a Green, and Much, the miller's son ;
Of Tuck,the merry friar, which many a sermon made
In praise of Robin Hood, his outlaws, and their trade."
Drayton's Polyolbwn, Song 26.
The theories, relative to the time in which he lived, vary greatly. Accord-
ing to Ritson, he was born in the reign of Henry II., about the year 1160, and
his true name was Robert Fitzooth, " which vulgar pronunciation easily corrupted
into Robin Hood." M. Thierry looks upon him as the chief of a band of Saxons
resisting their Norman oppressors. Mr. Wright considers him as a mere creature
of the imagination a Robin Goodfellow a " one amongst the personages of the
early mythology of the Teutonic people. " b A writer in The Westminster
Review* believes him to have been one of the Exheredati, adherents of Simon
de Montfort, who were reduced to the greatest extremities after the battle of
Eve diam. The Rev. Joseph Hunter, d the last writer on the subject, adopts
the account given of him in the earliest ballads, and has brought forward
much curious historical evidence to confirm that account. In his view, Robin
Hool lived in the reign of Edward II., and was in all probability one of the
" Contrariantes," supporters of the Earl of Lancaster, who was defeated at the
battle of Borough-bridge, in the month of March, 1321-2.
Tl e idea that Robin Hood is only a corruption of c March, 1840.
Robin o'th'wood was started by a correspondent of The A Critical and Historical Tracts, No. 4, "The Ballad-
Gentle/ian's Magazine for March, 1793. Hero, Robin Hood." By the Rev. Joseph Hunter, Vice
b Efiayt on the Literature, &c., of the Middle Ages. Pres. Soc. Ants., 8vo., 1852.
By Thomas Wright, 2 vols., 8vo., 1860.
2c
388 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
Neither Mr. "Wright nor Mr. Hunter place any reliance upon the passage so
often quoted from the Scoti-Qhronicon, concerning Robin Hood. They regard it as
part of the addition made to the genuine Fordun in the fifteenth century. The
earliest notice, therefore, in our literature is contained in Longland's poem,
The Vision of Pierce Ploughman, where one of the characters, representing
Sloth, says :
" I kan not perfitly my paternoster as the Preist it singeth,
But I kan rymes of Robyn Hode, and Randolf, Earl of Chester."
The date of this poem is between 1355 and 1365, and proves the popularity
of the ballads among the common people, in the reign of Edward HI. " It seems
also to prove," says Mr. Hunter, " that, in that reign, the outlaw was regarded
as an actual person, who had a veritable existence, just as Randolph, Earl of
Chester, was a real person."
Three of the ballads of Robin Hood are contained m manuscripts which cannot
be of later date than the fourteenth century. They are TJie Tale of Robin Hood
and the Monk; Rolm Hood and the Potter; and jRoftm Hood and Grandeleyn.
But, " far above these in importance, is the poem for it can hardly be called a
ballad which was printed by Winkyn de Worde in or about 1495. It is entitled
The Lytel Gf-este of Rolyn Hood; and is a kind of life of him, or rather a small
collection of the ballads strung together, so as to give a continuity to the story,
and with a few stanzas here and there, which appear to be the work of the person
who, in this manner, dealt with such of the ballads as were known to him."
The language of the ballads thus incorporated is the same as of the three ballads
above cited, that is, of the fourteenth century. Mr. Hunter takes The Lytel
Creste as a guide, and, comparing it with historical evidence, worked out by his
own researches, has produced an account so probable and so confirmatory, as to
leave scarcely a doubt as to its general accuracy.
Many writers, like Grafton, Stow, and Camden, have referred to, or quoted,
Major's account of Robin Hood, in his history, which was first published in Paris,
in 1521 ; but, when Major assigns him to the reign of Richard the First, he
writes only from conjecture. His words are, u Circa haec tempora, ut augur or,
Robertus Hudus Anglus et Parvus Joannes, latrones famatissimi, in nemoribus
latuerunt," &c. (Historia Majoris Britannice, per Joannem Majorem, 1521,
fol. lv., v.)
"We may therefore revert to the history of Robin Hood, as it was published
in 1495 from materials of the preceding century; and, although derived from
ballads, Bayle has truly said, that " a collection of ballads is not an unprofitable
companion to an historian ; " while Selden has gone so far as to say that they are
often truer than history.
Without entering far into detail, I may mention a few of the points adduced
by Mr. Hunter, in corroboration of the ballad account, and refer the reader, for
the life of Robin Hood, to his excellent little book.
The Lytel G-este lays the scene in the reign of one of the Edwards, who is
distinguished throughout by no other epithet than that of " Edward our comely
ROBIN HOOD. 389
king," and who makes a progress in Lancashire. Edward I. was never in
Lancashire after he became king, nor Edward III. in the early years of his reign,
(to which only could the ballads refer), and probably never at all. But
Edward II., to whom the term "our comely king," so often applied, would cer-
tainly be more appropriate than either to his father or his son, made one progress
in Lancashire, and only one ; this was in the autumn of the seventeenth year of
his reign, A.D. 1323.
The ballad represents the king at this time as especially intent on the state of
his forests, which were greatly wasted by the depredations of such men as
Robin Hood ; and we have historical evidence of Edward having then visited
several of his forests, and of his endeavour to reform the existing abuses.
In the ballad we are told that the king pa/dons Robin Hood, and takes him
into his service ; that he remains at court a year and three months ; at which
time, his money being nearly exhausted, and his men having left him, except Little
John and Scathelock, he becomes moody and melancholy, and resolves to leave the
court. He obtains permission from the king for a short time, under the plea of
making a pilgrimage to a chapel he had dedicated to Mary Magdalene in Barns-
dale ; he returns to the forest and there passes the remainder of his life.
The date of the king's progress to Lancashire being the autumn of 1323, would
fix the period of Robin's reception into his service a little before the Christmas of
that year ; and in the " Jornal de la Chambre," from the 16th April to the 7th
of July, 1324, Mr. Hunter finds, for the first time, the name of " Robyn Hode "
in the list of persons who received wages as " vadlets " or porters of the chamber.
The entry is a payment to nineteen persons, whose names are specified, from the
24th of March, at the rate of 3d. per day. In the account which immediately
precedes this, the names of those receiving payment are not specified, and that of
Robin Hood has not been observed in any document bearing an earlier date, and the
last payment to him is on the 22nd of November, in the following year.
Further, the Court Rolls of the Manor of Wakefield, of the ninth year of
Edward II., shew that, before the Earl of Lancaster's rebellion, there was a
Mobertus Hood (familiarly Robin Hood), a person of some consideration, living at
or ne;tr Wakefield, which is at no great distance from Barnsdale, and some of the
familv continued there till 1407.
The three principal reasons for the excessive popularity of Robin Hood were,
firstly, his free, manly, warm-hearted, and merry character his protection of the
oppressed, and hatred of all oppressors, whether clerical or lay ; secondly, the en-
couragement given to archery, which kept his name alive among the people ; and,
thirdly, the incorporation of characters representing Robin Hood and his
companions with the May- day games of the people.
On che first point Grafton says, "And one thing was much commended in him,
that ho would suffer no woman to be oppressed or otherwise abused. The poorer
sort of people he favoured, and would in no wise suffer their goods to be touched
390 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
or spoiled, but relieved and aided them with such goods as he gat from the rich,
which he spared not, namely, the rich priests, fat abbots, and the houses of rich
carles : and although his theft and rapine was to be contemned, yet the aforesaid
author [Major] praiseth him and saith, that among the number of thieves he was
worthy the name of the most gentle thief." (Chronicle, p. 84.) As to the zeal
with which Robin Hood's day was kept, Bishop Latimer complains, in his sixth
sermon before King Edward VI., that having sent overnight to a town, that he
would preach there in the morning, when he arrived he found the church door
locked, and after waiting half an hour and more for the keys, one of the parish
came to him, and said, " Sir, this a busy day with us, we cannot hear you; it is
Robin Hood's day : " and he was obliged to give place to Robin Hood.
Although there are so many songs about Robin Hood, I have found but few
tunes peculiarly appropriated to them. Many of the ballads were sung to one
air ; and some to airs which have already been printed in this collection under
other names.
Dr. Rimbault, in his Musical Illustrations of Robin Hood, appended to Mr.
Gutch's edition of the ballads, has printed the air of The Bailiff's Daughter
(ante p. 203), as one of the tunes to which "Robin Hood and the Finder of
Wakefield " was sung. His " Robin Hood and Queen Katherine " is the tune of
The Three Ravens (ante p. 59). "Robin Hood rescuing the Widow's Son" is
another version of Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor (ante p. 145). " Robin Hood
and Allan-a-Dale " is the first half of Drive the cold winter away (ante p. 193).
" Robin Hood and the Duke of Lancaster " (a satire upon Sir Robert Walpole) is
to the tune of The Allot of Canterbury (p. 350).
When Ophelia sings the line, " For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy," she
probably quotes from a ballad of Robin Hood, now lost ; because the tune in one
part of William Ballet's Lute Book is entitled Robin Hood is to the greenwood
gone, and in another part, Bonny sweet Robin. This has already been printed
among Ophelia's songs (ante p. 233.)
The ballad of The. Friar in the Well, of which I have found the tune, but not
the original words (ante p. 273), was, in all probability, a tale of Robin Hood's
fat friar. Anthony Munday, in his play, The Downfall of Robert, Earl of
Huntington, refers to it as one of the merry jests that had formed the subject of
some previous play about Robin Hood. At the end of act iv., where Little John
expresses his doubts as to the king's approval, because the play contains no "jests
of Robin Hood; no merry morrices of Friar Tuck," &c., the friar, personating
the author, answers
" I promised him a play of Robin Hood, As how the friar fell into the well,
His honourable life in merry Sherwood. For love of Jenny, that fair bonny belle ;
His majesty himself survey'd the plot, How Greenleaf robb'd the shrieve of
And bade me boldly write it, it was good. Nottingham,
For merry jests they have been shewn And other mirthful matter full of game.
before, Our play expresses noble Robert's wrong."
" How Greenleaf robb'd the sheriff of Nottingham," is told in the Lytel Creste of
Robin Hood, where Little John assumes the name.
ROBIN HOOD. 391
ROBIN HOOD AND ARTHUR-A-BLAND.
Although a greater number of the Robin Hood ballads were probably sung to
this tune than to any other, I have not found earlier authority for it than the
ballad-operas which were published from 1728 to 1750. It does not appear in
Tlw Dancing Master, being unfitted for dancing by its peculiar metre.
In The Jovial Crew, 1731, the following song is adapted to the tune :
" In Nottinghamshire Then cast away care,
Let them boast of their beer Bid adieu to despair,
With a hey down, down, and a down, With a down, down, down, and a down,
I'll sing in the praise of good sack; Like fools, our own sorrows we make,
Old sack and old sherry In spite of dull thinking,
Will make your heart merry While sack we are drinking,
Without e'er a rag to your back. Our hearts are too easy to ache."
Frcm the burden, the tune is sometimes entitled Hey down, a down; it is also
referred to under the names of Arthur- a- Bland, Robin Hood, Robin Hood revived,
Robin Hood and the Stranger, &c.
Among the Robin Hood ballads sung to it, besides those which the above names
indicate, are "Robin Hood and the Beggar," "Robin Hood and the four
Beggars," " Robin Hood and the Bishop " (not the Bishop of Hereford), " Robin
Hood's Chase," "Robin Hood and Little John," "Robin Hood and the Butcher,"
" Robin Hood and the Ranger," and " Robin Hood and Maid Marian."
Among the King's Pamphlets (Brit. Mus., vol. xv., fol.) is one to this air,
dated Jan. 17, 1659, " To the tune of Robin Hood." It is entitled " The Gang:
or the nine worthies and champions, Lambert," &c., and is a political ballad on
the nine leading members of the Committee of Safety, who were deprived of their
commissions and ordered away from London by the Rump Parliament, after the
depression of Lambert's party, and their own return to power. (Reprinted in
Political Ballads, edited by Mr. Wright, for the Percy Society, p. 188.) It
commences thus :
. " I& was at the birth of a winter's morn, Johnnie Lambert was first, a dapper squire,
W T ith a hey down, down, a-down, down, With a hey down, <fcc.,
Before the crow had hist, A mickler man of might
That nine heroes in scorn, Was ne'er in Yorkshire,
Of a Parliament forlorn, And he did conspire
Walk'd out with sword in fist. With Vane Sir Harry, a knight," (fee.
Pepys says in his Diary, on the 9th of January, 1659, " I heard Sir H, Vane
was this day voted out of the House, and to sit no more there," &c.
The black-letter copy of the ballad of " Robin Hood and Arthur-a-Bland," in
the Collection of Anthony Wood, is entitled " Robin Hood and the Tanner ; or,
Robin Hood met with his match : A merry and pleasant song, relating the gallant
and fierce combat fought between Arthur Bland, a tanner of Nottingham, and
Robin Hood, the greatest and most noblest archer in England. Tune is Robin
Hood and the Stranger" As it consists of thirty-seven stanzas, it is too long to
reprint. I therefore refer the reader to Ritson's Robin Hood, ii. 31 ; to Evans'
Old Ballads, ii. 113 ; or any other collection of songs of this celebrated outlaw.
392
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
Jovially.
ft
In Nottingham there lives a jol - ly tan-ner, With a
down,
down- a- down down, His name it is Arthur - a - Bland ; There's ne - ver a squire in
fottmgham - shire Dare bid hold Ar - thur stand.
ROBIN HOOD AND THE CURTAL FRIAR.
This chant was found by Dr. Rimbault, written in a contemporary hand, on the
fly-leaf of a copy of Parthenia, which was printed in 1611. The copies of the
ballad in Anthony a Wood's and in the Pepys Collections (vol. i., No. 37) are
entitled " The famous battle between Robin Hood and the curtail Fryer. To a
new Northern tune"
The ballad of " The noble Fisherman ; or, Robin Hood's preferment," is
directed to be sung to the tune of In Summer time, with which line this ballad
begins ; and perhaps both derive the name from the ballad of " King Edward the
Fourth and the Tanner of Tamworth," which commences in a similar way. The
last was entered on the books of the Stationers' Company, to William Griffith,
in 1564-5. Percy reprints from a copy in the Bodleian Library, dated 1596,
and the tune is mentioned in " Noctes Templarise," written in the year 1599
(Harl. MSS.) : " This night Stradilax, in great pomp, miscalled himself a
Lord. . . Poet Natazonius saluted him to the tune of The Tanner and the King"
The ballad begins thus :
" In summer time, when leaves grow greene,
And blossoms bedecke the tree,
King Edward wolde a hunting ryde,
Some pastime for to see."
Another copy will be found in the Roxburghe Collection, i. 176.
KOBIN HOOD.
393
In the Pepys Collection, i. 463, there is a ballad to the tune of In Summer
time, but in quite a different metre, and therefore to another tune. It is " The
Rh aer's new Trimming. To the tune of In Sommer time ; " beginning
" A rimer of late in a barber's shop
Sate by for a trimming to take his lot,
Being minded with mirth, until his turn came,
To drive away time he thus began ; "
in stanzas of four lines, and " imprinted at London by T. Langley."
The ballad of " Robin Hood and the curtal Friar " is reprinted in Ritson's
Rooin Hood, ii. 59; in Evans' Old Ballads, ii. 152 ; &c.
Douce explains " curtal " to mean " curtailed," or Franciscan friar ; because,
conformably to the injunction of their founder, they wore short habits. He
quo;es Staveley's Romish Horseleech to prove that Franciscans were so called.
Illustrations of Shakspeare, i. 60, 8vo., 1807.
" u, Jovially.
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ROBIN HOOD AND THE FINDER OF WAEEFIELD.
T3iis ballad was entered at the Stationers' Hall to Mr. John Wallye and Mrs.
Toyi , in the first year of the registers, 1557-8. It was so popular as to be twice
alluded to by Shakespeare, in his Henry IV., Part H., act v., sc. 3; and in
The Merry Wives of Windsor, act i., sc. 1. Also in Beaumont and Fletcher's
Phihster, act v., sc. 4; and quoted in Munday's Downfall of Robert, Earl of
Hunington, and Munday and Chettle's Death of Robert, Earl of Huntington;
both printed in 1601.
It is sometimes quoted as " Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John ; " sometimes as
"Th-3 Finder of Wakefield" (a "pinder" being the pen or pound-keeper for
impo inding stray cattle) ; and the tune occasionally entitled Wakefield on a
green, from the ditty. Two copies are to be found, under that name, among
the lute manuscripts (said to be Dowland's) in the Public Library, Cambridge
(D. d. ii. 11, and D. d. iii. 18) ; a third is contained in a manuscript volume of
394
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
virginal music of the time of Queen Elizabeth, now in the possession of
Dr. Rimbault.
The two lute copies seem, like many others in the same manuscripts, to have
no tune in them. They are probably pieces constructed upon the ground or base
of the air, to shew off the execution of florid passages on the lute. I have con-
stantly found melody sacrificed in that way, both in lute and virginal music. In
virginal music, the skeleton of the tune can generally be found running through
the piece, sometimes in the base, and sometimes in an inner part ; although the
arranger occasionally constructs a wholly different treble. The tune, in this
instance, is to be found in the base, and in the inner parts ; and I am indebted to
Dr. Rimbault for extracting it. Such versions are never very satisfactory, but
must be accepted when no better are to be had.
Drayton, in his Polyolbion, Song 28, speaking of Robin Hood, says:
" But of his merry man, the Pindar of the town
Of Wakefield, George-a-Green, whose fames so far are blown
For their so valiant fight, that every Freernaris Song
Can tell you of the same^ so be ye talk'd on long,
For ye were merry lads, and those were merry days."
If this be one of the Freemen's Songs, to which Drayton alludes, I suppose some
of the voices sang the burden.
The ballad is contained in Ritson's Rolin Hood, ii, 16 ; Evans' Old Ballads,
ii. 100 ; &c.
-^ Moderate time.
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In Wakefield there lives a
There's neither Knight nor Squire
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jol - ly Pin - der, In Wake-field all on a
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green,
bold,
In Wake -field all on a
Nor Baron that is
Dare make a tres-pass to the
CHORUS.
;ownof Wakefield, But his pledge goes to the Pin - fold, His pledge goes to the Pin - fold.
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ROBIN HOOD.
395
ROBIN HOOD AND THE BISHOP OF HEREFORD.
This, now the most popular of the Robin Hood Ballads, is taken from .a broad-
side, with music, " printed for Daniel Wright, next the Sun Tavern in Holborn."
" These byshoppes and these archebyshoppes,
Ye shall them bete and bynde,"
was an injunction carefully impressed by Robin Hood upon his followers, and
many are the tales of tricks he played upon them, and upon the wealthy abbots.
Li Ritson's opinion, " the pride, avarice, and hypocrisy of the clergy of that age
afforded him ample justification ; " but Ritson's pen was equally dipped in gall
against the clergy of every age, and I verily believe it was the outlaw's injunc-
tion to his followers, rather than any other motive, that induced Ritson to make
him his hero. Dray ton, in his Polyollion, in the 26th Song, says of Robin Hood
" From wealthy abbots' chests, and churls' abundant store,
Which oftentimes he took, he shared among the poor ;
No lordly Bishop came in lusty Robin's way,
To hiin before he went, but for his feast must pay ;
The widow in distress he graciously reliev'd,
And remedied the wrongs of many a virgin griev'd."
The title of the ballad is, " The Bishop of Hereford's entertainment by Robin
Hood and Little John, &c., in merry Barnsdale."
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l>old; But I'll tell ye how he serv'd the Bish- op of Hereford, And robb'd him of his gold.
A^ it befel in merry Barnsdale,
All under the greenwood tree,
Tl e bishop of Hereford was to come by,
With all his company.
Cc me, kill me a ven'son, said bold Robin Hood,
Come, kill me a good fat deer, [day,
Tl e Bishop of Hereford's to dine with me to-
,\nd he shall pay well for his cheer.
We'll kill a fat ven'son, said bold Robin Hood,
\nd dress it by the highway side ;
Ai id we will watch the bishop narrowly,
Lest some other way he should ride.
Robin Hood dress'd himself in shepherd's attire,
With six of his men also;
And, when the Bishop of Hereford came by,
They about the fire did go.
O what is the matter? then said the bishop,
Or for whom do you make this ado ?
Or why do you kill the king's venison,
When your company is so few ?
We are shepherds, said bold Robin Hood,
And we keep sheep all the year,
And we are disposed to be merry this day,
And to kill of the king's fat deer.
396
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
You are brave fellows ! said the bishop,
And the king of your doings shall know :
Therefore make haste, and come along with me,
For before the king you shall go.
O pardon, O pardon, said bold Robin Hood,
O pardon, I thee pray ;
For it becomes not your lordship's coat
To take so many lives away.
No pardon, no pardon, said the bishop,
No pardon I thee owe ;
Therefore make haste and come along with me,
For before the king you shall go.
Then Robin set his back against a tree,
And his foot against a thorn,
And from underneath his shepherd's coat
He pull'd out a bugle horn.
He put the little end to his mouth,
And a loud blast did he blow,
Till threescore and ten of bold Robin's men
Came running all on a row :
All making obeysance to bold Robin Hood ;
Twas a comely sight for to see.
What is the matter, master, said Little John,
That you blow so hastily ?
O here is the Bishop of Hereford,
And no pardon we shall have.
Cut off his head, master, said Little John,
And throw him into his grave.
O pardon, O pardon, said the bishop,
O pardon, I thee pray ;
For if I had known it had been you,
I'd have gone some other way.
No pardon, no pardon, said bold Robin Hood,
No pardon I thee owe ;
Therefore make haste and come along with me,
For to merry Barnsdale you shall go.
Then Robin he took the bishop by the hand,
And led him to merry Barnsdale ; [night,
He made him to stay and sup with him that
And to drink wine, beer, and ale.
Call in a reckoning, said the bishop,
For methinks it grows wondrous high ;
Lend me your purse, master, said Little John,
And I'll tell you bye and bye.
Then Little John took the bishop's cloak,
And spread it upon the ground,
And out of the bishop's portmantua
He told three hundred pound.
Here's money enough, master, said Little John,
And a comely sight 'tis to see;
It makes me in charity with the bishop,
Tho' he heartily loveth not me.
Robin Hood took the bishop by the hand,
And he caused the music to play ; [boots,
And he made the old bishop to dance in his
And glad he could so get away.
ROBIN HOOD AND GUY OF GISBORNE.
This tune is included among the English airs in Nederlandtsche Gf-edenck-
Clanck, 1626 ; but the English name is not given. In The Dancing Master, from
1650 to 1690, it is entitled " The chirping of the Lark ; " and in Playford's
Introduction to the Skill of Music, " The Lark."
It is evidently a ballad- tune ; but I have not found any ballad having par-
ticular reference to the song of the lark, and of suitable metre, a except " Robin
Hood and Guy of Gisborne." In that, the story hangs upon Robin Hood's being
awakened from a dream by the song of the woodweele, or woodlark ; b and I have
therefore coupled them.
The measure of the ballad alone would not give any
indication: it is too common. Any ballads like "The
Child of Elle ; " any to the tune of Chevy Ctiace, or to
Black and yellow (which I have not succeeded in indenti-
fying> might be sung to it.
b "Wodewall," and ' woodweele," are explained by
Jamieson, in his Scottish Dictionary, as synonimous
words "a bird of the thrush kind; rather, perhaps, a
woodlark : " but then, quoting Sibbald's Chronicle of
Scottish Poetry, he adds, "It appears to be the green
woodpecker." I imagine the first to be the "wood-
pecker," and the second the woodter/r." In Adrianus
Junius's Nomenclator, translated by John Higins, 8vo.,
1585, p. 58, he renders " Galgulus, galbula, ales luri-
dus," by " the bird that we call a witwal or woodwall;"
and according to Ray (Syn. Av., p. 43) our wit wall is a
sort of woodpecker. But the " -woodweele " of the ballad,
and the "woodtfafe" of Chaucer, are certainly singing-
birds. See the following lines from The Romaunt of the
Rose, in the folio Chaucer of 1542:
" In many places were nyghtyngales,
Alpes, fynches, and wodwales,
That in her swete songe delyten
In thylke places as they habyten."
ROBIN HOOD.
397
The ballad, which is as long as Chevy CJiace, has only hitherto been discovered
in Dr. Percy's folio manuscript, and the name of the tune is not given. It is
printed in the Reliques of Ancient Poetry ; in Ritson's, and other collections of
}>ongs of Robin Hood.
Cheerfully.
-fa* j r j . J ,[>-> J I |
=j-j=j 1 J J J I J
When shaws are sheen, and shrubs
.m. [woods are bright,]
full fair, And leaves both large and
r r r r r i
_k_l7.L 1 i
L_l_
: ~~l h ; ' p f
i 2 ff
j J 1 J | I J I 1
J . I =5=
^ [_
H m m 4
_ _ It m a
* f--f-
long, It's mer
f- F ^ LV
r^^r i
- ry walking in the fair fo - rest To hear the small birds'
' ~f 1 P ^ -
w : F
-H
_j _| J L
k_ | 1
\~^ \
--d j-TT""^
-J J 1 j 1 | j J J 1
[ _ J |]_J [_^ Hi 1 --
song. The woodweele sang, and would
not cease, Sit - ting up - on the
B f I-H
p .
f F f F
4 1 3
I
f
i ' i
ill i
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.rfm j
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d ^ j
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c^ J
m J
r-j ' m J
J - II - ~ M ^ .
^ i r-^r -) -
spray, So loud he wa - ken'd Ro-bin Hood In the Greenwood where he lay.
, ^ f F , F * - -I * - r f m
. i , \-^T
? p J
. , . ^
-^-
J
1 1 J
E5
ROBIN HOOD, ROBIN HOOD, SAID LITTLE JOHN.
An ancient dance-tune of " Roben Hude " is mentioned in Wedderburn's
Complainte of Scotland. 1549, and again in " The pityfull Historic of two loving
Italians, Gaulfrido and Barnado," &c., "translated out of Italian into Englishe
n.eeter by John Drout. Imprinted by Henry Binneman, 1570 "
" The minstrell he was called in some pretty jest to play,
Then Robin Hood was called for, and Malkin ere they went ;
But Barnard ever to the mayde a loving look he lent,
And he would very fayne have daunct with hir," &c.
This may be the dance in question. It is arranged in Pammelia (1609) as one
398
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
of three country-dances, with words, to be sung together, and entitled " A Round
for three country- dances in one."
Gailv.
Ko-bin Hood, Ro-bin Hood, said lit-tle John, Come dance before the Queen,
wi r *r -
In a red pet-ti-coat And a green jack-et, A white hose and a green.
^
Another dance of Robin Hood is printed by Dr. Rimbault, from one of the lute
manuscripts at Cambridge, but the same tune bears the name of Robin Reddock
in William Ballet's Lute Book.
THE LADY FRANCES NEVILL'S DELIGHT.
At the end of the edition of The Dancing Master printed in 1665, Playford
added some " new and pleasant English tunes for the treble-violin," which he
afterwards published in a separate form, with others, under the title of Apollo^s
Banquet for the Treble Violin. The Lady Frances NeviWs Delight is to be found
in both collections ; in MusicWs Delight on the Cithren y 1666 ; and in sundry
manuscripts.
Some copies differ in the second part of the tune, therefore the two versions are
here printed.
The title of The Lady Frances Nevilles Delight gives no clue to the original
words ; and, in default of them, Mr. Oxenford has written the following song of
Robin Hood. There is a great similarity of character between this air and that
of The Hunter in his career (ante p. 256) ; and in it the reader will probably find
a similar resemblance in a modern popular song.
Boldly, and in moderate time.
3^-+
t-
Come, here's to Ro - bin Hood, Of the merry greenwood, And a blessing on his
1=
KOBIN HOOD.
399
name, Tho' with shaft and bow, He de-parted long a- go, Un - perish-ing shall be his
fame. Like a no-ble soul He doated on the bowl, And a goblet of the best love
j 3E3
-e
. j__
9 (-
~v '
-^ - IM-
j
^T
_l ! d
-f^ -
-r !? ^ .^i i i
a
r
q ' J J_^=H
J j- -j-^
we
i
So, though bold Ro-bin's gone, Still his heart
lives on, And we
, 1 i , , - & -fi
T"
F
*^P=J~"
P r p hk
P F j
j
-I
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g
r 1 \4
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' r-i 1 r^n
i
r J I J J J H r^^
J i
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* * J J
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drink to him with three times three. So, though bold Robin's gone, Still his
_
A
- 1 F
* F r i
' ^
t* if*
iff r
r -
J i r
/ '
n L
- N i j
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heart lives on, And we drink to him with three times three
m
Good Robin oft gave chace
To the monks with sullen face,
Till he made them drop their gear ;
And their hearts would quake,
And their lusty limbs would shake,
If gallant Robin Hood was near.
Like that yeoman brave,
We hate a canting knave,
As the very worst of companie :
So, though bold Robin's gone,
Still his heart lives on,
And we drink to him with three times three.
400
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
Whene'er he filled his can,
He would drink to Marian,
To that kind and lovely maid ;
And he vow'd her smile
Would the worst of cares beguile,
While tippling in the greenwood shade ;
As the bowl we pass,
Each quaffs it to his lass,
Vowing none to be so fair as she :
So, though bold Robin's gone,
Still his heart lives on,
And we drink to him with three times three.
The following is another second part to the preceding tune :
~^~\~ V J
- m m fr~
-| J J J 4 1
j J J * f-
mV* 2 *
_ m r
1 * ' F
J ui. J
VsLJ
9 L a
m 9 m 9 T m
tti 1
Like a no - ble soul, &c.
' \ U
ET5 1? r
^1 *
i f
gT
^
r
401
PURITANISM,
IN ITS EFFECTS UPON MUSIC AND ITS ACCESSORIES.
PURITANISM, which so long exercised a pernicious influence upon music in this
country, has been traced to a division and separation between the exiles in Queen
Mary's reign : one party being for retaining the whole order of service, as set
forth in the reign of Edward VI. ; and the other for using only a part. Accord-
ing to Neal, such of the clergy as refused to subscribe to the Liturgy, ceremonies,
and discipline of the Church of England in 1564, were then first called Puritans.*
" Like the Church of Geneva," says Hentzner, " they reject all ceremonies
anciently held, and admit neither organs nor tombs in their places of worship,
and entirely abhor all difference in rank among churchmen, such as bishops,
deans," &c.
This, with their objections to the Liturgy, to surplices, copes, and square caps,
was an early stage of that puritanism which, having once gained the ascendancy,
aimed not only at the vices and follies of the age, but also at the innocent
amusements, the harmless gaieties, and the elegancies, of life.
Queen Elizabeth shewed her desire for the retention of cathedral service in
the first year of her reign. Among the injunctions issued to the clergy and
laity in 1559, the forty-ninth was for the continuance and maintenance of singing
in the church. b It recites, also, that " because in divers collegiate and some parish
churches, there have been livings appointed for the maintenance of men and
children, to use singing in the church, by means whereof the laudable science
of music hath been had in estimation, and preserved in knowledge; " therefore
the Queen's Majesty, not "meaning in any wise the decay of any thing that might
tend to the use and continuance of the said science," commands that " no alter-
ation be made of such assignments of living as have been appointed either to the
use of singing or music in the church, but that the same do remain."
In her own chapel the service was not only sung with the organ and voices,
but slso " with the artificial music of cornets, sackbuts, &c., on festival days."
Ac' ording to Neal, " Puritan is a name of reproach, at least, were ultra-Calvinists. The more vehement Puri-
derivec from the Cathari, or Puritani, of the third century tans in Elizabeth's reign were called " Barrowists," or
after Cl rist, but proper enough to express their desires of "Brownists." They maintained " that it is not lawful
a more mre form of worship and discipline in the Church." to use the Lord's prayer publicly in the church for a set
He givt s no authority for this derivation, and if, as Hentz- form of prayer, and that all set and stinted prayers are
ner saj s (1598), they were first called Puritans by the mere babbling in the sight of the Lord, and not to be used
Jesuit Sandys, it may be doubted whether he sought in public Christian assemblies." See the paper drawn up
in so umote a period for a name. In The Travels of by the Lord Keeper Puckring, printed by Strype (iv. 202,
Cosmo ///., Grand Duke of Tuscany, in England in 1669, 8vo., Oxford, 1824). This was the sect that afterwards
the wrii er says, " They are called Puritans from considering prevailed.
themse ves pure and free from all sin, leaving out, in the b This injunction is imperfectly printedin Neal's History,
Lord's i rayer, Etdimitte nobisdebitanostra," "And forgive of the Puritans (i. 152, Svo., 1732). It will be found in
us our 1 respasses." This is a probable derivation, as some Hawkins' History, ii. 543, Svo. ; and Bumey, iii. 18.
402 PUBITANISM, ETC.
In 1582, she revoked all commissions for penal statutes against concealments
(except where suits were pending) ; because those commissions had been abused by
persons endeavouring to obtain the property of churches and corporations. In a
letter from Lord Burghley, in 1586, we find that " Hir majestic is pleased to
confirme unto the vicars-choral of the Churche of Hereford the graunt of their
landes, which hath been sowght by divers greedie persons to have been gotten
from them as concealed." (Ugerton Papers, p. 119, 4to., Camden Soc., 1840.)
Nevertheless, when she gave the control of the lands and benefactions intended
for singing men and children, together with other church property, into the hands
of deans and chapters, she did more injury to the cause she desired to advocate
than all that puritanism could effect. Puritanism triumphed for a time, but the
grasp of deans and chapters has never been removed.
It was not long before the seed thus sown produced its fruits. During the
Queen's life, the injunctions she had issued had the effect of restraining, in some
measure, the misappropriation of the funds devoted to the musical service ; but
her injunctions died with her, and the trusts remained.
The misappropriation of these funds was brought before the notice of James L,
in a paper entitled " The Occasions of the decay of Music in Cathedrall and
Colledge Churches at this time." It is therein stated that, " whereas, in former
tymes of poperye, divers benifactions have been given to singing men which have
falne within the danger of concealement, and have been againe restored to Deanes
and Canons by newe grauntes by the late Queene, with intencion that the same
should be imploied as before; contrariwise the same is swallowed up by the
Deanes and Canons, because they only are the body of that incorporation, and
the singing men are but inferior members." Among the means resorted to,
were Firstly, the giving the actual sum at which the lands were formerly valued,
"so as whereas 20 nobles* a yeare, thirty yeares agone, would at this day have
equalled the worth of twenty markes a yeare in the maintenance of a man, the
same hath lost its value the one halfe, by reason of the dearness of the tyme
present." Secondly, the places of singing men were " bestowed upon Taylors, and
Shoemakers, and Tradesmen, which can singe only so muche as hath bene taught
them" [not read music] ; "and divers of the said places are bestowed upon their
owne men, the most of which can only read in the church, and serve their master
with a trencher at dynner, to the end that the founder may pay the Deanes or
Prebends man his wages, and save the hyre of a servant in the master's purse."
Thirdly, " All indeavour for teachinge of musick, or the forminge of voices by
good teachers was altogether neglected, as well in men as children;" and "many
that go under the name of choristers, have that same small maintenance, not for
singing, but beinge dumbe choristers, the said wages being by ill governors bestowed
upon them to keepe and maintaine them for some other instruction, which the
founder never meant; so that in Colledges where there are founded sixteen, twelve,
or ten choristers, scarce four of them can singe a note."
The value of a noble was 6*. 8d., and of a mark accounts in marks and nobles in the lawyers' bills of
13. 4d. We have a vestige of the old method of keeping the present day.
IN ITS EFFECTS UPON MUSIC, ETC. 403
Fourthly, that the number of singers had already been halved in many places,
and the money went into prebendaries' purses; that half the lodgings or chambers
appointed by the founders for the singing men, had either been kept by preben-
daries, or let at a yearly rent, they pocketing the money ; and that places were
left open a year and a half, under pretence of not having found competent persons.
If, therefore, says the writer, in cathedrals, where the original number of singers
was forty> " now diminished to twenty," they be again " lessened to ten, how
absurd will it be that such large and stately buildings should be supplied by so
few, whose voices will only sound but as a little clapper in a great bell ! "
It ends with a recommendation that the statutes of every foundation may be
examined; for, although deans lived like deans, and prebendaries and canons
lived like prebendaries and canons, " the poor singing men do live like miserable
beggars ; " and " if the said lands be not employed to the true use and intention
of the founder, as the members are sworn to preserve them, the aforesaid oath is
violated and broken, and the abuse needeth reformation." a
As these abuses were not reformed, it may be inferred that the deans and
chapters were too powerful for the singing men, as they were in the late eccle-
siastical commission, which has perpetuated the misappropriation of the trusts
intended for their benefit by the founders. Well might the poet exclaim that
" fat Cathedral bodies
Have vef-y often but lean little souls." b
As to the Puritans, many of the clergy who were raised to preferments in
Queen Elizabeth's reign, spent the time of their exile in such churches as
followed the Genevan form of worship, and returned much disaffected to the rites
and ceremonies that were re-established, and especially to cathedral service. The
dislike to cathedral service was not exclusively acquired in exile, for Thomas
Becon, who was afterwards made Prebendary of Canterbury by Queen Elizabeth,
had printed his Authorized Rtliqiies of Rome in the last year of the reign of
Edward VI. In that work he says, " As for the Divine Service and Common
Prayer, it is so chaunted and minced and mangled of our costly, hired, curious,
and nice musitions (not to instruct the audience withall, nor to stirre up men's
minds unto devotion, but with a lascivious harmony to tickle their ears), that it
may justly seeme, not to be a noyse made of men, but rather a bleating of brute
beasts ; whiles the choristers neigh a descant as it were a sort of colts ; others
belL >w a tenour as it were a company of oxen ; others bark a counterpoint as it
wer<> a kennell of dogs; others roar out a treble like a sort of bulls; others
grunt out base as it were a number of hogs." c
In 1572, Thomas Cartwright, a violent Puritan, and Margaret Professor of
a TI e manuscript from which these extracts are made gistrum Eleemosynaries D. Pauli Londinensis, 4to., 1827 ;
is in t:ie British Museum (MSS. Reg. 18, B. 19), bound and A Correspondence and Evidence respecting the ancient
up with James the First's versification of the Psalms in Collegiate School attached to St. Paul's Cathedral, 4to.,
his ow i handwriting. 1832. Also the various publications of Pring, the organist
b Se( on this subject, An Apology for Cathedral Service, of Bangor. The case of the Minor Canons of Canter-
8vo., H39. The Choral Service of the United Church of bury, &c., &c. The same tale of violated trusts is told
England and Ireland, by the Rev. John Jebb, 8vo., 1843. in all.
Miss Ilackett's three privately-printed books, viz., Brief c This passage is quoted by Prynne, in his Histrio-
Accouitt of Cathedral and Collegiate Schools, with an ab- mastix, the Player's Scourge, 4to., 1633, as well as an
sttact of their Statutes and Endowments, 4to., 1827 ; Re- extract already printed here(Note C, p. 18), from John of
2D
404
PURITANISM,
Divinity at Cambridge, attacked cathedral music, and even the service of the
Queen's own Chapel, in a similar spirit. " In all their order of service," said
he, " there is no edification, according to the rule of the Apostle, but confusion.
They toss the Psalms, in most places, like tennis-balls." This is in allusion to
the verses being sung alternately by the choir on the two sides of the dean and
precentor. "As for organs and curious singing, though they be proper to Popish
dens (I mean to cathedral churches), yet some others also must have them. The
Queen's Chapel, and these churches, which should be spectacles of Christian
reformation, are rather patterns and precedents to the people of all superstition."
Salisbury (and which I have verified by a contemporary
manuscript, written for Symon, Abbot of St. Alban's,
who was installed A.D. 1167, and died in 1188. See MSS.
Reg. 13, D. 4, British Museum); also the following,
equally curious for the early history of music in England,
from Aelredus, Abbot of Rivaulx, in Yorkshire, who died
A.D. 1166. Prynne prints the original Latin in a note, and
quotes from Speculum Charitatia, lib. ii., cap. 23, Bibl.
Patrum, vol. xiii., p. Ill, " Let me speake now of those
who, under the shew of religion, doe obpalliate the busi-
nesse of pleasure : who usurpe those tilings for the
service of their vanity, which the ancient Fathers did
profitably exercise in their types of future things.
Whence then, I pray, all types and figures now ceasing,
whence hath the Church so many Organs and Musicall
Instruments? To what purpose, I demand, is that
terrible blowing of Belloes, expressing rather the crackes
of Thunder, than the sweetnesse of a voyce? To what
purpose serves that contraction and inflection of the
voice ? This man sings a base, this a small meane, an-
other a treble, a fourth divides and cuts asunder, as it
were, certaine middle notes. One while the voyce is
strained, anon it is remitted, nowagaine it is dashed, and
then againe it is inlarged with a lowder sound. Some-
times, which is a shame to speake, it is enforced into
an horse's neighings ; sometimes, the masculine vigor
being laid aside, it is sharpened into the shrilnesse of a
woman's voyce : now and then it is writhed, and retorted
with a certaine artificiall circumvolution. Sometimes
thou mayst see a man with an open mouth, not to sing,
but, as it were, to breath'out his last gaspe, by shutting
in his breath, and by a certaine ridiculous interception of
his voyce, as it were to threaten silence, and now againe
to imitate the agonies of a dying man, or the extasies of
such as suffer. In the mean time, the whole body is
stirred up and downe with certaine histrionical gestures:
the lips are wreathed, the eyes turne round, the shoulders
play, and the bending of the fingers doth answer every
note. And this ridiculous dissolution is called religion ;
and where these things are most frequently done, it is
proclaimed abroad that God is there more honourably
served. In the meane time, the common people standing
by, trembling and astonished, admire the sound of the
Organs, the noyse of the Cymbals and musicall Instru-
ments, the harmony of the Pipes and Cornets : but yet
looke upon the lascivious gesticulations of the Singers,
the meretricious alternations, interchanges, and infrac-
tions of the voyces, not without derision and laughter;
so that a man may thinke that they came, not to an Ora-
tory, or house of prayer, but to a Theatre ; not to pray,
but to gaze about them : neither is that dreadfull majesty
feared before whom they stand, etc. Thus, this Church
singing, which the holy Fathers have ordained that the
weake might be stirred up to piety, is perverted to the
use of unlawful! pleasure," etc. The above passage is so
descriptive of the state of church music in England in
themiddleof the twelfth century, that I rr gret not having
seen it in time for insertion in the text, in its proper place.
It corroborates Dr. Rimbault's account, in his History of
the Organ, that at that time organs had but one stop, and
that Pipes, Cornets, and Cymbals (of a small description,
tuned in sets) were used with them. Among the early
improvements in the construction, were the imitations of
those instruments by stops. The description of the sing-
ing in four parts, and of the airs and graces, and the
singers, have so modern an appearance, that they might
almost have been written yesterday. Prynne prints the
original Latin, from Bibl. Patrum, but to ensure that no
interpolations have been made, I have collated that copy
with a manuscript of the Speculum Charitatis, written in
the thirteenth century, and now in the British Museum.
It is MSS. Reg. 5. B. 9, and belonged to the Monastery of
St. Mary, at Coggeshall, in Essex. The name of the
author is variously latinized, Aelredus, Ailredus,
Ealredus, &c., his English name being Ethelred.
The passage in question, at fol. 191 of the Manuscript, is
as follows: " De his nunc sermo sit, qui specie religionis
negotium voluptatisobpalliant : quicaquae antiqui patres
in typis futororum salubriter exercebant, in usum vani-
tatis usurpant. Unde quaeso, cessantibus jam typis et
figuris, unde in Ecclesia tot Organa totCymbala? Ad
quid rogo terribilis ille follium flatus, tonitrui potius fra-
gorem quam vocis exprimens suavitatem? Ad quid ilia
vocis contractio et infractio? Hie succinit, ille discinit
alter supercinit, alter medias quasdam notas dividit et
incidit. Nunc vox stringitur, nunc frangitur, nunc im-
pingitur, nunc diffusiori sonitu dilatatur. Aliquando,
quod pudet dicere, in equinos hinnitus cogitur, aliquando,
virili vigore deposito, in faeminiae vocis gracilitate acuitur :
nonnunquam artificiosa quadam circumvolutione torque-
tur et retorquetur. Videas aliquando hominem aperto
ore, quasi intercluso halitu expirare, non cantare, ac ridi-
culosa quadam vocis interceptione, quasi minitari silen-
tium, nunc agones morientium, vel extasim patientium
imitari. Interim histrionicis quibusdam gestibus totum
corpus agitatur; torquentur labia, rotant oculi, ludunt
humeri et ad singulas quasque notas digitorum flexus
respondet. Et haec ridiculosa dissolutio vocatur religio ;
et ubi haec frequentius agitantur, ibi Deo honorabilius
serviri clamatur. Stans intere vu'.gus, sonitum Follium,
crepitum Cymbalorum, harmoniam Fistularum, tremens
attonitusquemiratur: sed lascivas Cantantium gesticula-
tiones, meretricias vocum alternationes et infractiones, non
sine cachinno, risuque intuetur ; ut eos non ad Oratorium
sed ad Theatrnm, nee ad orandum sed ad spectandum
zestimes convenisse: nee timetur ilia tremenda majestas
cui assistitur," &c. " Sic quod sancti Patres instituerunt
ut infirmi excitarentur ad affectum pietatis, in usum
assumitur illecitae voluptatis."
IN ITS EFFECTS UPON MUSIC, ETC. 405
Even in Convocation, it was proposed " that the use of organs be abolished," as
early as 1562.
In 1586, while Parliament was sitting, another virulent Puritan pamphlet was
printed and industriously circulated. It was entitled " A request of all true
Christians to the Honourable House of Parliament." It prays " that all
cathedral churches may be put down, where the service of God is grievously
abused by piping with organs, singing, ringing, and trowling of Psalms, from one
side of the choir to another, with the squeaking of chanting choristers, disguised
(as are all the rest) in white surplices ; some in corner caps and filthy copes,
imitating the fashion and manner of Antichrist the Pope, that Man of Sin and
Child of Perdition, with his other Rabble of Miscreants and Shavelings." In
this book, deans and canons are described as " unprofitable drones, or rather
caterpillars of the world," who " consume yearly, some 2500/., some 3000/., some
more, some less, wherein no profit cometh to the Church of God." Cathedrals
" are the dens of idle loitering lubbards ; the harbours of time-serving hypocrites,
whose prebends and livings belong, some to gentlemen, some to boys, and some to
serving men and others." While such were the invectives of Puritans against
church music, even in Queen Elizabeth's reign, it could not be expected that
secular music, or any but their own " psalms to hornpipes," should escape similar
animadversion. Accordingly, Stephen Gosson, in his Schoole of Abuse (1579),
comparing the music of his time with that of the ancients, says, " Homer with
his musick cured the sick soldiers in the Grecian camp, and purged every man's
tent of the plague ; " but " thinke you that those miracles could be wrought with
playing of dances, dumps, pavans, galliards, measures, fancies, or new strains ?
They never came where this grew, nor knew what it meant. . . . The Argives
appointed by their laws great punishments for such as placed above seven strings
upon any instrument : Pythagoras commanded that no musician should go beyond
his diapason " [octave]. " Were the Argives and Pythagoras now alive, and saw
how many strings, how many stops, how many keys, how many clefs, how many
moods, flats, sharps, rules, spaces, notes, and rests ; how many quirks and corners;
what chopping and changing, what tossing and turning, what wresting and wring-
ing, is among our musicians ; I verily believe that they would cry out with the
countryman, Alas ! here is fat feeding and lean beasts ; or, as one said at the
shearing of hogs, Great cry and little wool. Much ado and small help" A passage
from this author " against unprofitable pipers and fiddlers," and one from Thomas
Lovell, against " dauncing and minstralsye," have already been quoted under
Queen Elizabeth's reign (ante pp. 107, 108) ; but even Thomas Lodge, who
replied to Gosson "in defence of poetry, musick, and stage plays," would not
defend the merry-making pipers and fiddlers. He says, " I admit not of those
that deprave music : your pipers are as odious to me as yourself; neither allow I
your harping merry beggars ; " but " correct not music when it is praiseworthy,
lest your worthless misliking bewray your madness."
Philip Stubbes, in his Anatomy of Abuses, first printed in 1583, (and so popular
with the Puritans that four editions of it were printed within twelve years),
devotes an entire chapter against music. He says that from " a certain kind of
406
smooth sweetness in it, it is like unto honey, alluring the auditory to effeminacy,
pusillanimity, and loathsomeness of life. . . . And right as good edges are not
sharpened, but obtused, by being whetted upon soft stones, so good wits, by hear-
ing of soft music, are rather dulled than sharpened, and made apt to all wanton-
ness and sin." He complains of music " being used in public assemblies and
private conventicles as a directory to fililiy dancing ;" and that "through the
sweet harmony and smooth melody thereof, it estrangeth the mind, stirreth up
lust, womanisheth the mind, and ravisheth the heart." Speaking of the minstrels
who had licenses from the justices of the peace, and lived upon their art, he says,
" I think all good minstrels, sober and chaste musicians (I mean such as
range the country, riming and singing songs in taverns, ale-houses, inns, and
other public assemblies), may dance the wild morris through a needle's eye.
There is no ship so balanced with massive matter as their heads are fraught with
all kinds of lascivious songs, filthy ballads, and scurvy rhimes, serving for every
purpose and every company."
These specimens of the Puritan spirit with regard to music may suffice ; but
the curious will find similar passages in nearly all their writings. The arguments
against cathedral music were ably answered by Hooker in Book v. of his Eccle-
siastical Polity, and by others. At the Restoration, the Rev. Joseph Brookbank
published a book in favour of church music, entitled " The well-tuned Organ ; or,
an Exercitation : wherein this Question is fully and largely discussed, whether or
no Instrumental and Organical Musick be lawful in Holy Publick Assemblies."
4to., 1660. There is little argument in the Puritan books against church music,
they consist almost entirely of bitter invective or vulgar abuse. Music, however,
was not the only subject of their attacks.
When James I. was making a progress through Lancashire in 1617, he rebuked
the Puritan magistrates for having prohibited and unlawfully punished the people
for using their " lawful recreations and honest exercises upon Sundays and other
holidays, after the afternoon sermon or service ; " and in the following year, he
published a declaration concerning such sports as were lawful. These were,
" dancing, either men or women ; archery, for men ; leaping, vaulting, or any
other such harmless recreation ; May-games, Whitsun-ales, Morris-dances, and
the setting up of Maypoles, and other sports therewith used, so as the same be
had in due and convenient time, without impediment or neglect of divine service."
Such recreations were prohibited to " any that, though conform in religion, are
not present in the Church at the service of God, before going to the said re-
creations ; " and all were to be sharply punished who abused this liberty by using
these exercises before the end of all divine services for that day ; and each parish
was to use the said recreation by itself. The Puritan magistrates had forbidden
these sports, under the plea of taking away abuses ; but such amusements had
always been held lawful, and " if," said he, " these times be taken away from the
meaner sort, who labour hard all the week, they will have no recreations at all to
refresh their spirits ; and, in place thereof, it will set up filthy tipplings and
drunkenness, and breed a number of idle and discontented speeches in their
ale-houses." Also it will " hinder the conversion of many, whom their priests
IN ITS EFFECTS UPON MUSIC, ETC. . 407
will take occasion hereby to vex, persuading them that no honest mirth or
recreation is lawfully tolerable in our religion." Such sports as " bear and bull-
bmting, and interludes," were still held to be unlawful on Sundays.*
A similar " Declaration to his Subjects, concerning lawful sports to be used,"
was published by Charles L, in 1633.
These sports, except, perhaps, archery, leaping, and vaulting, were condemned
by the Puritans, not only as unlawful on Sundays, but as altogether abominable.
I have quoted Philip Stubbes on the abomination of May-games (ante p. 133),
and subjoin an extract from Prynne's Histriomastix, on dancing.
" Dancing is for the most part attended with many amorous smiles, wanton com-
pl ments, unchaste kisses, scurrilous songs and sonnets, effeminate music, lust-
prjvoking attire, ridiculous love-pranks; all which savour only of sensuality, of
raging fleshly lusts. Therefore it is wholly to be abandoned of all good Christians.
Dr ncing serves no necessary use, no profitable, laudable, or pious end at all : it issues
on y from the inbred pravity, vanity, wantonness, incontinency, pride, profaneness, or
madness of men's depraved natures. Therefore it must needs be unlawful unto
Christians. The way to heaven is too steep, too narrow, for men to dance in and
keop revel-rout : No way is large or smooth enough for capering roisters, for jump-
ing, skipping, dancing dames, but that broad, beaten, pleasant road that leads to hell.
The gate of heaven is too narrow for whole rounds, whole troops, of dancers to march
in together : Men never went as yet by multitudes, much less by morrice- dancing
troops, to heaven : Alas, they scarce go two together; and these few, what are they?
Not dancers, but mourners, whose tune is Lachrymal ; whose music is sighs for sin ;
win know no other Cinque -pace but this to heaven ; to go mourning all the day long
for their iniquities; to mourn in secret like doves; to chatter like cranes for their own
and others sins." (p. 253.)
Another custom to which the Puritans had a real or pretended aversion was
that of kissing. Prynne alludes to it in the above extract. It was not only
customary to salute a partner at the commencement and end of a dance (and
there were many dances in which there was much more kissing), but also on first
me( ting a fair friend in the morning, or on taking leave of her.
" Kiss in the ring " still holds a place among the pastimes of the lower orders ;
but. until the Puritans gained the upper hand, the custom " of kissing was
universal, and (at least, for two centuries before) peculiarly English.
Without entering upon the question as to whether it originated, like the custom
of drinking healths, from the introduction of Rowena to Vortigern, when she
"pressed the beaker with her little lips, and saluted the amorous Vortigern
with a little kiss," it can, at least, be shewn to have been general in Chaucer's
time. He alludes to the custom frequently, and in the picture of the friar, in the
Sompnour's Tale, he touches on the zeal and activity with which the holy father
perf< >rmed this act of gallantry. As soon as the mistress of the house enters the
room, " he riseth up full courtisly
And her embraceth in hie armes narrow,
And kisseth her sweet, and chirketh as a sparrow
With his lippes."
a A c >py of the proclamation of James I. is in the library 1817, by G. Smeeton. That of Charles I. is reprinted in
of the Society of Antiquaries. It was also reprinted in Harleian Miscellany, vol. 5, p. 70, 4!o.
408
Cavendish, in his life of Cardinal Wolsey, gives an account of going to the
castle of M. de Crequi, a French nobleman, " and very nigh of blood to King
Louis XII.," where, he says, " I being in a fair great dining chamber, where the
table was covered for dinner, I attended my lady's coming; and, after she came
thither out of her own chamber, she received me most gently, like one of noble
estate, having a train of twelve gentlewomen. And when she with her train came
all out, she said to me, * For as much as ye be an Englishman, whose custom is in
your country to kiss all ladies and gentlewomen without offence, and altkough it
be not so here in this realm (of France), yet will I be so bold as to kiss you, and
so shall all my maidens.' By means whereof I kissed my lady, and all her
women. Then went she to her dinner, being as nobly served as I have seen any
of her estate here in England." (p. 171, ed. 1827.)
In the same reign, Erasmus writes to a friend, describing the beauty, the
courtesy, and gentleness of the English ladies in glowing terms, and this custom
as one never sufficiently to be praised. He tells him that if he were to come to
England he would never be satisfied with remaining for ten years, but must wish
to live and die here. a
A Spanish pamphlet in the library of the British Museum (4 to., dated 1604)
gives an account of the ceremonies observed during the residence of the Duke de
Frias (Ambassador Plenipotentiary from the Spanish Court) in England, on the
accession of James I. In that the writer says, " The Ambassador kissed her
Majesty's hands, craving at the same time permission to salute the ladies present,
a custom of which the non-observance on such occasions is deeply resented by
the fair sex of this country," and leave was accordingly given. (Ellis's Letters
on English History, v. iii., s. 2, p. 211.)
Again, when the celebrated Bulstrode Whitelock was at the court of Christina,
Queen of Sweden, as Ambassador from Cromwell, he waited on her on Mayday,
to invite her " to take the air, and some little collation which he had provided as
her humble servant." Having obtained her consent, she, with several ladies of her
court, accompanied him ; and her Majesty, " both in supper time and afterwards,"
being " full of pleasantness and gaiety of spirits, among other frolics, commanded
him to teach her ladies the English mode of salutation ; which after some pretty
defences, their lips obeyed, and Whitelock most readily." (G-entfs. Mag.,
v. xcii., part L, p. 325.) "From these passages, it is evident that the custom
was as much admired by the ladies of other countries as it was peculiar to this."
Whytford's Pype of Perfection has been quoted to prove that objection was
taken to the custom of kissing at the time of the Reformation ; but Whytford
objected not only to kissing, but also to every sort of salutation, even to shaking
"Quanquam si Britannia dotes satis pernosses, via: venitur ad te? propinantur suavia: disceditur abs te
Fauste, nae tu alatis'pedibus, hue accurreres; et si pod a- dividunter basia: occuritur alien bi? basiatur affatim
gra tua non sineret, Daedalum te fieri optares. Nam ut e denique, quocunque te moveas. Suaviorum plena sunt
pluribus unum quiddam attingam. Sunt hie nymphae omnia. Quae, si tu, Fauste, gustasses semel quam sint
divinis vultibus, blandae, faciles, et quas tu tuis camaenis mollicula quam fragrantia, profecto cuperes non decen-
facile anteponas. Est praeterea mos nunquam satis lau- niumsolum, ut Solon fecit, sed ad mortem usque in Anglia
datus : Sive quo venias omnium osculis exciperis ; sive peregrinari." Erasmi Epistol, Fausto Andrelino, p. 315,
discedas aliquo, osculis demitteris : redis ? redduntur sua- edit. 1642.
IN ITS EFFECTS UPON MUSIC, ETC. 409
of hands, among religious persons. He says, " It becometh not, therefore, the
persones religious to folow the maner of secular persones, that in theyr congresses,
or common meetyngs or departyngs, do use to kisse, take hands, or such other
touchings." (Fol. 213, b, 1532.) John Bunyan gives an amusing account of his
scruples on the subject, in his Grace Abounding : li When I have seen good men
salute those women that they have visited, or that have visited them, I have made
my objections against it ; and when they have answered that it was but a piece of
civility, I have told them that it was not a comely sight. Some, indeed, have urged
the holy kiss ; but then I have asked them why they made balks? why did they
sulute the most handsome, and let the ill-favoured go ? " This last question was,
no doubt, rather perplexing to the good men to answer ; but here Bunyan proves
that very few were troubled by his scruples.
The abandonment of .the custom is said to have been "a part of that French
code of politeness, which Charles II. introduced on his restoration." The last
traces of its existence are perhaps in one or two letters from country gentlemen,
in The Spectator ; one of which occurs in No. 240. The writer relates of him-
self, that he had always been in the habit, even in great assemblies, of saluting
all the ladies round; but a town -bred gentleman had lately come into the
neighbourhood, and introduced his " fine reserved airs." " Whenever," says the
writer, " he came into a room, he made a profound bow, and fell back, then
recovered with a soft air, and made a bow to the next, and so on. This is taken
for the present fashion ; and there is no young gentlewoman within several miles
of this place who has been kissed ever since his first appearance among us."
Another custom, to which the Puritans objected violently, was that of men
wearing long hair. Prynne wrote a book called The Unlovelinesse of Lovelockes,
in which he quotes a hundred authorities against it. Of these, one will suffice,
from Purchas's Pilgrim: " Long hair is an ornament to the female sex, a token
of subjection, an ensign of modesty : but modesty grows short in men as their
hair grows long; and a neat, perfumed, frizzled, powdered bush hangs but as a
token of vini non vendibilis, of much wine, little wit, of men weary of manhood,
of civility, of Christianity, which would fain imitate American savages, infidels,
barbarians, or women at the least and best." (c. li., p. 490.)
To this, Butler, the author of Hudibras, retorted by a song upon the Kound-
he;ids. " Among other affected habits," says Mrs. Hutchinson in her Memoirs
of Colonel Hutchinson, " few of the Puritans, what degree soever they were of,
wore their hair long enough to cover their ears ; and the ministers and many
otliers cut it close round their heads, with so many little peaks, as was some-
thi ng ridiculous to behold. From this custom of wearing their hair, that name
of Roundhead became the scornful term given to the whole Parliament party,
whose army indeed marched out as if they had been only sent out till their hair
was grown." In A full and complete Answer to A Tale in a Tub, 4to., 1642, the
author says, " Some say we are so termed (Roundheads), because we do cut our
hair shorter than our ears, and the reason is because long hair hinders the sound
of the Word from entering into the heart." The following is Butler's song :
410 CAVALIERS AND ROUNDHEADS.
" What creature's that, with his short hairs, What's he that doth high treason say,
His little band and huge long ears, As often as his yea and nay,
That this new faith hath founded ? And wish the King confounded ;
The saints themselves were never such, And dares maintain that Mr. Pirn
The prelates ne'er rul'd half so much ; Is fitter for a crown than him ?
Oh ! such a rogue's a Roundhead. Oh ! such a rogue's a Roundhead.
What's he that doth the bishops hate, What's he that if he chance to hear
And counts their calling reprobate, A little piece of Gammon Prayer,
'Cause by the Pope propounded ; Doth think his conscience wounded ;
And thinks a zealous cobbler better Will go five miles to preach and pray,
Than learned Usher in ev'ry letter ? And meet a sister by the way ?
Oh ! such a rogue's a Roundhead. Oh ! such a rogue's a Roundhead."
This is printed in Butler's Posthumous Works, 1732, p. 105, and a copy is
among Ashmole's MSS., No. 36, 37. The manuscript contains a similar song on
the Cavaliers, beginning " What monster's that, that thinks it good."
The closely cut crown was the badge of all the lower order of Puritans. Wood
says, " the generality of Puritans had mortified countenances, puling voices,
and eyes commonly (when in discourse) lifted up, with hands lying on their
breasts. They mostly had short hair, which at this time was commonly called
the Committee cut." (Fasti Oxon., ii. 61.) It was not a new practice, for,
according to Aubrey, in 1619, when Milton the poet was ten years of age, " his
schoolmaster was a Puritan in Essex, who cut his hair short." This carries it
back to the reign of James I. Although Milton was Latin Secretary to the
Commonwealth, he preserved his own " clustering locks" throughout the rule of the
Roundheads. Aubrey, in his manuscript Collections for the Life of Milton , tells
us that "he had a delicate, tuneable voice, and good skill in music." After
dinner it was his habit to " play on the organ, and either he or his wife sang.
He made his nephews songsters, teaching them to sing from the time they were
with him ; and although, towards his latter end, he was visited with the gout, he
would be cheerful, even in his gout fits, and sing." (Aubrey MSS., No. 10,
Ashm. Mus.) In his Tractate on Education, Milton says, that after athletic
exercise, " the interval of unsweating, and that of a convenient rest before meat,
may, both with profit and delight, be taken up in recreating and composing the
travailed spirits with the solemn and divine harmonies of music, heard or learned.
Either while the skilful organist plies his grave and fancied descant on lofty
fugues, or with artful touches adorns and graces the well-studied chords of some
choice composer ; sometimes the lute or soft organ-stop waiting on elegant voices,
either to religious, martial, or civil ditties ; which, if wise men and prophets be not
extremely out, have a great power over dispositions and manners, to smooth and
make them gentle from rustic harshness, and distempered passions. The like also
would not be unexpedient after meat, to assist and cherish nature in her first
concoction ; and send the mind back to study in good tune and satisfaction."
Milton imbibed his love of music, in all probability, from his father,* who made
Edward Phillips (nephew of the poet) says Milton's he followed the vocation of scrivener for many years, at
father was disinherited " for embracing, when young, the his house in Bread Street, with success suitable to his
Protestant faith, and abjuring the Popish tenets : that industry and prudent conduct of his affairs. Yet he did
THE COMMONWEALTH. 411
it the relaxation of his leisure hours, and was an excellent amateur composer.
En his time, the habit of singing part-music after meals was general, especially
after supper, the hour of which corresponded with that of our present dinner.
Although now more common in Germany than in England, it is a practice that
night be revived with great advantage, for, while assisting digestion, there is no
:ime at which music is more thoroughly enjoyable to those who can take a part.
It was said by A[llan] C[unningham], in the Penny Magazine (No. 391,
May 6, 1838), that the ballads "were on the side of the parliament in the
struggle with Charles." . I think this can only apply to the early part of the
contest, for after the fall of Archbishop Laud, I doubt whether any more were
^.vritten on their side. Laud had rendered himself extremely unpopular by
his intemperate zeal, and by his rigorous prosecutions of all separatists, in the
8tar Chamber imprisoning some, and cutting off the ears of others. Moreover,
there was a general impression that he was endeavouring to lead the country back
to Popery. It is said of one of the daughters of William, Earl of Devonshire,
that having turned Catholic, she was questioned by Laud as to the motives of her
conversion. She replied that her principal reason was a dislike to travel in a
crowd. The meaning being obscure, the Archbishop asked her what she meant.
" I perceive," said she, " your Grace and many others are making haste to Rome,
and therefore, to prevent being crowded, I have gone before you." It is an
undoubted fact that the Pope sent him a serious offer of a Cardinal's hat : indeed,
Laud tells us as much in his diary. The dissolution of the Parliament, in 1640,
v r as generally attributed to his instigation ; and two thousand persons entered
St. Paul's at one time, exclaiming, " No Bishop ! No high Commission ! " The
most scurrilous libels were affixed to the walls in every quarter of the town ;
tallads, of which he was the subject, were composed and sung in the streets ; and
pictures, in which he was exhibited in the most undignified postures, were pub-
licly displayed. The ale-houses teemed with songs in which he was held up to
derision. When this was told to the Archbishop, "His lot," he said, "was not
^orse than that of David;" at the same time quoting the 69th Psalm, " They
that sat in the gate spake against me, and I was the song of the drunkards."
It is reported of Archibald Armstrong, Charles the First's jester or fool, that
ho once asked permission of the King to say grace when Laud was present ; which
boing granted, he said, " All praise to the Lord, and little laud to the devil."
In one of the many lampoons of the time, he is styled
' One of Rome's calves, far better fed than taught.' "
There are still many ballads extant concerning Archbishop Laud. Besides those
which, are to be found among the King's Pamphlets in the British Museum, a
collection, partly in print and partly in manuscript, was a few years ago in the
no so far quit his own generous and ingenious inclina- songs of his composition, after the way of these times
tio is as to make himself wholly a slave to the world ; for (three or four of which are still to be seen in old Wilby's
he sometimes found vacant hours for the study (which set of Ayrcs, besides some compositions of his in Ravens-
he made his recreation) of the noble science of music, in croft's Psalms), he gained the reputation of a considerable
wl ich he advanced to that perfection, that, as I have been master in this most charming of all the liberal sciences."
tol 1, and as I take it, by our author himself, he composed One of the madrigals in The Triumphs of Oriana, 1601,
an In Nomine of forty parts, for which he was rewarded and several in Sir Christopher Leighton's Tears and
wi h a gold medal and chain by a Polish Prince (Aubrey Lamentations of a Sorrowful Soule, were also composed
?aj s, by the Landgrave of Hesse), to whom he presented it. by Milton, who bore the same Christian name as his cele-
Ho >vever, this is a truth not to be denied, that for several brated son.
412
CAVALIERS AND ROUNDHEADS.
possession of Mr. Willis, the bookseller, who printed the following in his
Current Notes for December, 1852. A copy is also in MSS. Ashmole 39 and 37.
" A prognostication on W. Laud, late Archbishop of Canterbury, written
A.D., 1641, which accordingly is come to pass. Sold at the Black Ball in Corn-
hill, near the Exchange." (With a woodcut of an execution, the body stretched
on the scaffold, and the executioner holding up a bleeding head.)
My little lord, methinks 'tis strange
That you should suffer such a change
In such a little space.
You, that so proudly t'other day
Did rule the King, and country sway,
Must trudge to 'nother place.
Remember now from whence you came,
And that your grandsires of your name
Were dressers of old cloth ; a
Go, bid the dead men bring their shears,
And dress your coat to save your ears,
Or pawn your head for both.
The wind shakes cedars that are tall,
An haughty mind must have a fall,
You are but low I see ;
And good it had been for you still,
If both your body, mind, and will,
In equal shape should be.
Your cheesecake cap and magpie gown,
That made such strife in every town,
Must now defray your charge.
Within this six years, six ears have
Been cropt off worthy men and grave,
For speaking what was true ;
But if your subtle head and ears
Can satisfy those six of theirs,
Expect but what's your due.
Poor people that have felt your rod
Yield Laud to the devil, praise to God,
For freeing them from thrall ;
Your little " Grace," for want of grace,
Must lose your patriarchal place,
And have no grace at all.
Your white lawn sleeves that were the wings
Whereon you soar'd to lofty things,
Must be your fins to swim ;
The King, by hearkening to your charms, Th' Archbishop's see by Thames must go,
Hugg'd our destruction in his arms, With him unto the Tower below,
And gates to foes did ope ; There to be rackt like him.
Your mitre would o'ertop the crown,
If you should be a Pope.
But you that did so firmly stand,
To bring in Popery in this land,
Have miss'd your hellish aim ;
Your saints fall down, your angels fly,
Your crosses on yourself do lie,
Your craft will be your shame.
We scorn that Popes \vith crozier staves,
Mitres or keys, should make us slaves,
And to their feet to bend :
The Pope and his malicious crew
We hope to handle all, like you,
And bring them to an end.
The silenc'd clergy, void of fear,
In your damnation will have share,
And speak their mind at large :
Your oatl1 cnts de *p' y ur lies hiirt sore >
Your canons made Scot's cannons roar,
But now I hope you'll find
That there are cannons in the Tower
Will quickly batter down your power,
And sink your haughty mind.
The Commonalty have made a vow,
No oath, no canons to allow,
No bishops' Common Prayer ;
No lazy prelates that shall spend
Such great revenues to no end
But virtue to impair.
Dumb dogs that wallow in such store,
That would suffice above a score
Pastors of upright will ;
Now they'll make all the bishops teach,
And you must in the pulpit preach
That stands on Tower Hill.
Laud's father was a clothier, of Heading.
THE COMMONWEALTH. 413
When the young lads to you did come But now the subtle whirly-wind,
You knew their meaning by the drum, Debauch, hath left the bird behind,
You had better yielded then ; * You two must flock together.
Your head and body then might have AVI i j j
. , ' A bishop's head, a deputy's breast,
One death, one burial, and one grave A ^ ,, . Trr /. .
A Finch s tongue, a Wren from s nest,
By boys, but two by men. ~n L ^ T -i /.
J J ' J \\ ill set the devil on foot ;
B it you that by your judgments clear, He's like to have a dainty dish,
"Will make five quarters in a year, At once both flesh, and fowl, and fish,
And hang them on the gates ; And Duck and Lamb to boot.
Tliat head shall stand upon the bridge, fiut ^ j gay . ^ ^ ^
When yours shall under traitor's trudge, Did m both Church and ^ ^
And smile on your miss'd fates. And trample Qn the crown .
The little Wren that soar'd so high, Like a bless'd martyr you will die
Thought on his wings away to fly, For Church's good ; she rises high
Like Finch, I know not whither ; When such as you fall down.
Another of the ballads against Laud is named " The Organ's Echo, to the tune
of The Cathedral Service." A third, " The Bishop's last Good-night :
" Where Popery and innovation do begin,
There treason will by degrees come in."
Laud was beheaded in 1644 ; and in the same year, Sir Edward Dering
brought a bill unto the House of Commons for the abolition of Episcopacy. In
his " Declaration and Petition to the House of Commons," printed in that year,
he asserted, in the true spirit of his party, that " one single groan in the spirit
is worth the diapason of all the Church music in the world."
" Two ordinances of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament for the
speedy demolishing of all Organs, images, and all matters of superstitious monu-
ments in all Cathedral and Collegiate or Parish-Churches and Chapels throughout
the kingdom," were published on the 9th of May, 1644, but their demolition had
been nearly accomplished two years before ; for, as said by a writer of the time,
No organ-idols with pure ears agree,
Nor anthems why ? nay ask of them, not me ;
There's new Church music found instead of those,
The women's sighs tuned to the Preacher's nose."
The account of their destruction will be found in " Mercurius Rusticus ; or the
Country's Complaint of the barbarous outrages committed by the Sectaries of this
nourishing kingdom ; " in Culmer's " Cathedral News from Canterbury ; " &c.
Ar, Rochester, Sir John Seaton, " that false traiterous Scot," coming towards the
church and hearing the organs, started back, and " in the usual blessing of some
of his country, cried A Devil on those Bagpipes" At Chichester, in 1642, the
rebels, under the command of Sir William Waller, "brake down the organs,
and dashing the pipes with their pole axes, scoflingly said, Hark ! how the organs
go ; " and Sir Arthur Haslerig, being told where the church plate was concealed,
commanded his servants to break down the wainscot round the room, and while
Five thousand London apprentices went to Lambeth effect their purpose. One was secured, a tailor, who was
to ake him, but Laud was prepared, and they could not hung for the attempt.
414 CAVALIERS AND ROUNDHEADS.
they were doing it, danced and skipped, crying, " There, boys, there, boys, hark !
it rattles, it rattles : " upon which, says the writer, " Pray, mark what musick
that is to which it is lawful for a Puritan to dance." In Westminster Abbey,
" they brake down the organ and pawned the pipes at several ale-houses for pots
of ale. They put on some of the singing men's surplices, and in contempt of that
canonical habit, ran up and down the church ; he that wore the surplice being the
hare and the rest the hounds." At Exeter, they " brake down the organs, and
taking two or three hundred pipes with them, in a most scornful and contemptuous
manner, went up and down the street, piping with them, and meeting some of
the choristers of the church, whose surplices they had stolen before, scoffingly
told them, < Boys, we have spoiled your trade, you must go and sing Hot pudding
pyes? r At Peterborough, under Cromwell, after defacing the tombs of Queen
Catherine and Mary, Queen of Scots, " when their unhallowed toilings had
made them out of wind, they took breath afresh on .two pair of organs, piping
with the very same about the market place lascivious jigs, whilst their comrades
danced after them, some in copes, others with the surplices, and they brake down
the bellows to blow the coals of a bonfire to burn them." On their first visit to
Canterbury, they slashed the service books, surplices, &c., and " began to play
the tune of The Zealous Soldier on the organs or case of whistles, which never
were in tune since." But on this occasion, some ran to the Commander-in-Chief,
who called off the soldiers, " who afterwards sung cathedral prick-song as they
rode over Barham Down towards Dover, with pricking leaves in their hands, and
lighted their tobacco pipes with them ; and such pipes and cathedral music," in
the opinion of Culmer, " did consort well together." St. Paul's Cathedral was
turned into horse- quarters for the soldiers of the Parliament, except the choir,
which was separated by a brick wall from the nave, and converted into a preach-
ing place. The entrance to it was by a door which had formerly been a window.
The Corinthian portico at the west end was leased out to a man who "built in it a
number of small shops, which he let to haberdashers, glovers, and sempsters or
milliners, and this was called PauVs CJiange.
Charles the First's love of music is mentioned by Playford, in his Introduction
to the skill of Musick, edit. 1760. He says that he was not " behind any of his
predecessors in his skill and love of this divine art, especially in the service of
Almighty God ;" and that he " often appointed the service and anthems ; being,
by his knowledge in musick, a competent judge therein, and much delighted to
hear that excellent service composed by Dr. William Child, called his Sharp
Service. And for instrumental music, none pleased him like those incomparable
Fantasies for one Violin and Base-viol to the Organ, composed by Mr. Coperario" a
(Cooper). In the British Museum (Addit. MSS., 11,608, fol. 59) is a song
the music of which was composed by Charles I., the poetry by Thomas Carew.
It commences : " Mark how the blushful morn, in vain,
Courts the am'rous marigold." 1 *
"During the prosperous state of the King's affairs" (says Lord Orford,
* The only known manuscript of these Fancies by last that were purchased from Thorpe, the celebrated
Coperario is now in the possession of Dr. Rimbault. bookseller, for the British Museum. It is an important
b The manuscript which contains this song is one of the manuscript in several respects.
THE COMMONWEALTH. 415
Hist. Paint., ii. 147) " the pleasures of the Court were carried on with much taste
aid magnificence. Poetry, painting, music, and architecture, were all called in
to make them rational amusements; and I have no doubt but the celebrated
festivals of Louis XIV. were copied from the shows exhibited at Whitehall, in its
time the most polite court in Europe. Ben Jonson was the laureate ; Inigo
Jones the inventor of the decorations ; Laniere and Ferabosco " [Dr. Campion,
Dr. Giles, W. and H. Lawes, Simon Ives, Dr. Coleman, &c.] " composed the
symphonies; the King, the Queen, and the young nobility, danced in the
interludes."
Oliver Cromwell was also a great lover of music, and " entertained the most
skilful in that science in his pay and family." Heath compares him in his love
for music to " wicked Saul, who, when the evil spirit was upon him, thought to
lay and still him with those harmonious charms ; " but he adds, that " generally
ho respected or at least pretended to love, all ingenious or eximious persons in
any arts, whom he procured to be sent or brought to him." (Flagellum, p. 160,
4th edit., 1669). He engaged John Kingston, a celebrated musician of the
time, who had been in the service of Charles, to instruct his daughters in music,
and gave him a pension of 100. a year. Kingston gave concerts at his own
house, at which Cromwell would often be present. At one of these, Sir Roger
IT Estrange happened to be a performer, and Sir Roger not leaving the room upon
Cromwell's coming into it, the Cavaliers gave him the name of Oliver's Fiddler.
In a pamphlet entitled Truth and Loyalty vindicated, 4to., 1662, Sir Roger thus
tells the story :
" Mr. Edward Bagshaw will have it that I frequently solicited a private conference
with Oliver, and that I often brought my fiddle under my cloak to facilitate my entry.
Surely this Edward Bagshaw has been pastor to aGravesend boat; he has the vein so
right. A fiddle under my cloak ? Truly my fiddle is a base viol, and that's somewhat
a 1 roublesome instrument under a cloak. 'Twas a great oversight he did not tell my
lord to what company (of fiddlers) I belonged. Concerning the story of the fiddle,
th's I suppose might be the rise of it. Being in St. James' Park, I heard an organ
touched in a little low room of one Mr. Hickson's. I went in, and found a private
company of some five or six persons. They desired me to take up a viol, and bear a
part. I did so, and that a part, too, not much to advance the reputation of my cunning.
B} and by, without the least colour of a design or expectation, in conies Cromwell.
He found us playing, and, as I remember, so he left us."
Sir Roger never lost the name, for as late as 1683 a pamphlet was printed about
him under the title of u The Loyal Observator ; or Historical Memoirs of the
Life and Actions of Roger the Fidler."
Anthony a Wood also tells a story of Cromwell's love of music. He says,
"A. W. had some acquaintance with James Quin, M.A., one of the senior
students of Christ-Church, and had several times heard him sing with great
admiration. His voice was a base, and he had a great command of it ; 'twas
very strong, and exceeding trouling. He had been turn'd out of his place by
the visitors, but being well acquainted with some great men of those times that
loved music, they introduced him into the company of Oliver Cromwell the
416 CAVALIERS AND ROUNDHEADS.
Protector, who loved a good voice and instrumental music well. He heard him
sing with great delight, liquored him with sack, and in conclusion, said, i Mr.
Quin, you have done well, what shall I do for you ? ' To which Quin made
answer, c That your Highness would be pleased to restore me to my student's
place;' which he did accordingly." (Life of Anthony a Wood. Oxford,
1772, p. 139.)
Cromwell treated Oxford much better than Cambridge, and it seems to have
been a place of almost peaceable retirement for musicians, during the Protectorate.
Anthony a Wood gives a glowing account of the delight he experienced in the
weekly music parties there, and relates some other freaks, such as joining in a
disguise of country fiddlers and going to Farringdon Fair. His companions in
this were W. Bull, who like himself played on the violin; E. Gregory, B.A. and
Gentleman Commoner of Merton College, who played on the base-viol; J. Nap,
of Trinity, on the citerne ; and G. Mason, of the same College, on another wire
instrument. They got on very well, played to the dancing on the green, and
received a sufficiency of money and drink ; but, in returning home, they were
overtaken by some soldiers, who made them play in the open field, and left them
without giving them a penny. He says, " Most of my companions would after-
wards glory in this, but I was ashamed, and never could endure to hear of it."
(p. 81.) Wood's accounts of the music parties, and of the musicians who were
then in Oxford, have been copied into Hawkins' History of Music ; I will, therefore,
only add what he says of the instruments : " The gentlemen in these private
meetings played three, four, and five parts, with viols, (as treble-viol, tenor, coun-
ter-tenor, and base,) with an organ, virginal, or harpsicon, joyn'd with them : they
esteemed a violin to be an instrument only belonging to a common fidler, and could
not endure that it should come among them, for fear of making their meetings to
be vain and fidling. But before the restoration of King Charles II. (and espe-
cially after), viols began to be out of fashion, and only violins were used, as
treble- violin, tenor, and base-violin ; and the King, according to the French mode,
would have twenty-four violins playing before him, while he was at meals, as being
more airy and brisk than viols." (p. 97, 8vo., Oxford Edit., 1772.) Hence
the song of Four-and-tiuenty Fiddlers all of a row.
As to ballads, it was said, in 1641, that " there hath been such a number
of ballad-makers and pamphlet-writers employed this yeare, that it is a wonder
that there was any room for that which was made in Queen Elizabeth's time, upon
the Northerne Rebellion, now reprinted." ( Vox Borealis.) In 1642, ballads
respecting " the great deeds of Oliver Cromwell at Worcester and Edgehill," were
gravely proposed to Parliament to be sung at Christmas in place of Christmas-
carols. (See No. 6, of " Certaine Propositions offered to the consideration of the
Honourable houses of Parliament," reprinted in Antiquarian Repertory, iii. 34,
4to., 1808.)
The ballads written against Cromwell personally were principally aimed at his
fanaticism, at his red nose, at his having been a brewer (which is not the fact),
and at his having been run away with by some German horses, which they do
not fail to wish had broken his neck. The accident is thus related by Heath,
THE COMMONWEALTH. 417
in his Flagellum (4th edit., 1669) : " Cromwell would shew his skill in driving
s x great German horses in Hyde Park (sent him as a present by the court of
Oldenburgh), but they no sooner heard the lash of the whip, but away they ran,
with Thurloe sitting trembling in it for fear of his neck, over hill, over dale, and
at last threw down their inexpert governor from the box into the traces. Of this
some ingenious songs were made, and one called The Jolt, by Sir John Birkenhead,
\\hich being in print in a history, in the Hump Songs, though the author is
mistaken, is purposely forborn." (p. 152.)
In 1642, the first ordinances were issued for the suppression of stage plays ;
and in 1643, a tract was printed, with the title of " The Actor's Remonstrance or
Complaint for the silencing of their Profession;" which shews, among other
tilings, the distress to which the musicians of the theatres were thereby re-
duced. The writer says, " Our musike that was held so delectable and precious
that they scorned to come to a tavern under twenty shillings salary for two
houres, now wander with their instruments under their cloaks (I mean such as
have any), to all houses of good fellowship, saluting every room where there is
company with, Will you have any musike, gentlemen?" (Note to Dodsley's Old
Plays, v. 432.) Some of the shops in London were kept open on Christmas-day
in 1643, the people being fearful of " a popish observance of the day." The
Puritans gradually prevailed, and in 1647 some of the parish officers of St.
Margaret's, Westminster, were committed to prison for permitting ministers to
preach on Christmas-day, and for adorning the church. On the 3rd of June,
1<347, it was ordained by Lords and Commons in Parliament that the Feast of the
Nativity of Christ should no longer be observed.
The final ordinance for suppressing all stage plays and interludes, as
" condemned by ancient heathens, and by no means to be tolerated among
professors of the Christian religion," was enacted Feb. 13, 1647-8; and on
Dec. 13, 1648, Captain Betham was appointed Provost-Martial, " with power
to seize upon all ballad-singers, and to suppress stage plays." (Whitelock's
Memorials, p. 332.) From this time we may safely assume that no more ballads
wore written in their favour, and that the majority, at least, had long been against
them. Loyal songs were printed secretly, in spite of this ordinance; and,
in one by Sir Francis Wortley , Bart, (to the tune of Tom of Bedlam) , printed
A.D. 1648, are the following concluding lines:
" Bless the printer from the searcher Those who have writ for the King, for
And from the Houses' takers. the good King,
Bless Tom from the slash ; from Bride- Be it rhime or reason,
well's lash, If they please but to look through Jenkins
Bless all poor ballad-makers. his book," (Lex Terrce, 1647)
41 They'll hardly find it treason."
In 1649, while the King was still in prison, Marchamont Needham wrote these
lines, but did not then dare to print them :
" Here's a health to the King in sack, In vinegar to the crabbed pack
To the Houses in small beer, Of priests at Westminster."
The last is an allusion to the " synod of divines."
418 CAVALIERS AND ROUNDHEADS.
An extraordinary collection of the political songs and ballads from the
commencement of the Long Parliament (Nov., 1640), to the restoration of
Charles II., is contained in what are termed the King's Pamphlets, now in the
British Museum. These Pamphlets were secretly collected by a bookseller, named
George Thomason, and were intended for the use of Charles I. They were pre-
sented to the national library by George III., who is said to have purchased them
for three or four hundred Pounds, although the original collector refused 4,000/.
for them. They consist of about 30,000 pieces uniformly bound in 2,000 volumes,
and the day of the month and year in which each was issued are noted upon
them. One of the volumes was borrowed by Charles I., while at Hampton Court,
and he dropped it in the mud in his flight to the Isle of Wight. The accident is
commemorated by a memorandum in the book (vol. 100, small 4to.), and the
edges still show the stains of dirt some to more than an inch in depth.
The collections of songs which were printed at the Kestoration, are, as might be
supposed, wholly on the side of the King. " Rats rhymed to death ; or, The
Rump Parliament hang'd up in the Shambles," was one of the first. This was
printed in 1660, and in the same year "The Rump; a collection of Songs and
Ballads, made upon those who would be a Parliament, and were but the Rump of
an House of Commons, five times dissolved." This was enlarged in 1662, and
printed as " Rump ; or an exact collection of the choicest poems and songs
relating to the late times, by the most eminent wits from anno 1639 to anno
1661." The last includes all in Rats rhymed to death, except two at the close of
the volume. The most voluminous writer of songs on the King's side was
Alexander Brome ; but by far the most useful and important to the Royal cause
was Martin Parker, of ballad fame. His " The King shall enjoy his own
again," did more to support the failing spirits of the Cavaliers throughout their
trials than the songs of all other writers put together, and contributed in no small
degree to the restoration of Charles II. Monk, the general who brought him
back, was a mere follower of the times.
Martin Parker is a writer who has certainly been under-valued. Ritson pro-
nounces him " a Grub-street scribbler, and great ballad-monger of Charles the
First's time," but he did not know that he was the author of the poem, " The
Nightingale warbling forth her own disaster ; or, the Rape of Philomela,"
of " Robin Conscience," 21 or of this song which he eulogises so highly.
In Vox Borealis, 1641, he is described as " one Parker, the Prelates' Poet,
who made many base ballads against the Scots," for which he was " like to have
tasted of Justice Long's liberality, and hardly he escaped his Powdering-Tub,
which the vulgar people call a prison." In an anti-episcopal pamphlet, called
" Laws and Ordinances, forced to be agreed upon by the Pope and his Shavelings
for the disposing of his adherents and the Popish Rites he sent into England," he
a Mr. Gutch, in his account of Martin Parker (Robin the Ashmolean Library, dated 1686, and another in the
Hood, ii. 84), does not mention his Robin Conscience, a Bodleian, without date); of A Garland of Withered Roses,
copy of which is in the Bodleian Library (1635). In Sam. 1656; of The Poet's Blind-Man's Bough [buff], or Have
Holland's Romancio-Maslix, or a Romance on Romances, among you, my blind Harpers, 1641; of The King and a
mention is made of " Martin Parker's Heroic Poem called poor Northern man, 1640 (the story of which seems to have
Valentine and Orson." He was also the author of A true been taken from an old play) ; and of many of the ballads
Tain of Robin Hood, printed for T. Cotes, 1631 (a copy in in this collection. See Index.
THE COMMONWEALTH. 419
is mentioned with two others, Taylor, the Water-poet, and Thomas Herbert.*
" Article 2. We appoint John Taylor, Martin Parker, and Herbert, all three
English poetical, papistical, atheistical ballad-makers, to put in print rhyme-
doggery from the river of Styx, against the truest Protestants, in railing lines ;
and, in the end, young Gregory" [Gregory Brandon, the common hangman]
" .shall be their paymaster." 5
Martin Parker was probably at one time an alehouse-keeper, for the author of
Vox Borealis says, " But now he swears he will never put pen to paper for the
prelates again, but betake himself to his pitcht " [spouted] " can and tobacco
pipe, and learn to sell his frothy pots again, and give over poetry."
In the " Actor's Remonstrance or Complaint for the silencing of their profes-
sion, and banishment from their several Play-houses," 1643, the author expresses
his fear that " some of our ablest ordinary Play-Poets, instead of their annual
stipends and beneficial second-days, being for mere necessity compelled to get a
living, . . . will shortly (if they have not been forced to do it already) be incited
to enter themselves into Martin Parker's Society, and write ballads." This
sounds like a covert threat to the puritan magistrates, or, at least, as intended to
let them understand that their pens would be employed in a manner which might
be less agreeable to them. Martin Parker's ballad-writing society is again men-
tioned in " The Downefall of Temporizing Poets, unlicenst Printers, upstart
Booksellers, trotting Mercuries, and bawling Hawkers," 1641. " You [ballad-
writers] are very religious men ; rather than you will lose half-a-crown, you will
write against your own fathers. You will make men's wills before they be sicke,
han^ them before they are in prison, and cut off heads before you know why
or wherefore. You have an indifferent strong corporation ; twenty-three of you
sufficient writers, besides Martin Parker ! " Twenty-four able ballad-writers !
and yet all their productions are now so scarce as to be marketably worth their
weight in gold.
" Inspired with the spirit of laMaiing" says Flecknoe, in a whimsey printed at
the end of his Miscellanea, 1653, " I shall sing in Martin Parker's vein :
' Smithfielrl, thou that in times of yore,
With thy ballets did make all England roar,' " &c.
* In Brand's Sale-Catalogue, Part 2, No. 2923, is sempsters, that they may have handkerchers in readiness
" Merci.rie's Message defended against the vain, foolish, to wipe their eyes when they shall weep for their j ust-
simple, and absurd cavils of Thomas Herbert, ridiculous deserved downfall."
Ballad- naker. Portraits, 4to., 1041." Several of Her- "6. Whereas the English Prelates and prestigious"
bert's p eductions are mentioned by Lowndes. [juggling] " Priests, being well affected to Popish rites,
b As ;his pamphlet is very scarce, and exhibits an at- vested their black insides with white Rochets and Stir-
tempt tt humour, not usual in puritanical pamphlets, a plices, if they can procure them, let them be turned into
few spe< imens are subjoined. shirts for them ; we counsel them henceforth to vest them-
" Article 1. We leave the great Archbishop's cause" selves outwardly in mourning black."
[Laud's "to the mercy of the parliament, because it is "7. We advise the Bishops to stuff their Cater-caps
not in 01 .r power to help him." with feathers, to serve them for cushions in their closets,
"3. I counsel the English Bishops to send their Mitres that they may sit at ease after they are driven to study
to the b( ok-binders' shops, and bespeak them bibles well thither."
bossed therewith, because we apprehend no means to keep " 8. It is our provident care that their scarlet robes be
them lot ger from their studies." given to their eldest daughter, wife, or nearest kinswoman,
" 4. \Ve advise them to send their crosier staves to the to be worn in a petticoat for posterities, as an emblem of
joiners, o be translated into crutches ; for we see that the predecessor's crimes."
(with gre it sorrow) they must be forced to stoop." " 14. We censure the Organ-pipes to be burned in the
"5. "W = advise them to send their lawn sleeves to the founder's melting pot, because we cannot help it."
2E
420 CAVALIERS AND ROUNDHEADS.
In TJie Joviall Crew ; or The Devitt turned Ranter, 4to., 1651, after a catch
has been sung, " the best and newest in town," " Excellent (says a Ranter)
did this Minerva take flight from John Taylor's or Martin Parker's vein ?" In
Naps upon Parnassus, 1658, Martin Parker is styled " the Ballad-maker
Laureat of London," but in Part 2 of The Night Search, 1646, his works are
not very respectfully treated :
" A box of salve, and two brass rings,
With Martin Parker's works, and such like things."
Two of his ballads are quoted by Izaak Walton in his charming book The Angler,
1653 (ante pp. 295 and 297) ; and perhaps the latest contemporary notice of
him is contained in Dryden's comedy of Sir Martin Mar-all, which was acted at
the Duke's Theatre, 1668. act v., sc. 1 :
Sir Martin. There's five shillings for thee. What ? we must encourage good wits
sometimes."
Warn. " Hang your white pelf : sure, Sir, by your largess, you mistake me for
Martin Parker, the Ballad-maker."
John Wade was another of the many ballad-writers employed on the King's
side. He was the author of " The Royall Oak, or the wonderfull Travells, mira-
culous Escapes, strange Accidents of his Sacred Majesty King Charles the
Second," which has been reprinted, from a cotemporary black-letter copy in
Mr. Halli well's Collection, in Notes and Queries (vol. x., p. 340).
Thomas Weaver, who had been turned out of the University of Oxford by the
Presbyterians, was the author of a collection of songs, in which he ridiculed the
Puritans so effectually that the book was denounced as a seditious libel against
the government, and a capital indictment founded upon it. He escaped with his
life (according to Anthony a Wood) in consequence of a very humane charge
from the judge. He afterwards " sank into the office of an exciseman at Liver-
pool, where he was called Captain Weaver, and where he died in inglorious
obscurity." His book of songs is not contained in the King's Pamphlets, nor
have I been able to see a copy.
The first who came forth as champion of the royal cause, in English verse
(according to Wood), was John Cleveland, or Cleiveland, then a fellow of St.
John's College, Cambridge. His lines on " The Rebel Scot," "The Scot's
Apostacy;" "On the Death of His Royal Majesty, Charles, late King of
England," &c. ; and his song, " The Puritan " (to the tune of The Queen's Old
Courtier), and others, prove him to have been a powerful, and often dignified, yet
most sarcastic writer. He adhered to the royal cause till its ruin. At last, in
1655, after having led for some years a fugitive life, he was arrested in Norwich,
and taken before the Commissioners, who imprisoned him at Yarmouth. Having
been confined there for three months, he petitioned Cromwell, who ordered his
release. The transaction was honourable to both parties. Cleveland's spirit is
shown in his petition. He thus addresses the Protector : " I am induced to
believe that, next to my adherence to the royal party, the cause of my confine-
ment is the narrowness of my estate ; for none stand committed whose estates can
bail them. I only am the prisoner, who have no acres to be my hostage. Now,
if my poverty be criminal (with reverence be it spoken), I implead your Highness
THE COMMONWEALTH. 421
whose victorious arms have reduced me to it, as accessory to my guilt. Let it
suffice, my Lord, that the calamity of the war hath made us poor : do not punish
us for it. ... I beseech your Highness, put some bounds to the overthrow, and
do not pursue the chase to the other world. Can your thunder be levell'd so low
as our grovelling condition ? Can your towering spirit, which hath quarried upon
kingdoms, make a stoop at us, who are the rubbish of these ruins ? Methinks
I hear your former achievements interceding with you not to sully your glories
with trampling upon the prostrate ; nor clog the wheel of your chariot with so
degenerous a triumph. The most renowned heroes have ever with such tender-
ness cherished their captives, that their swords did but cut out work for their
courtesies. . . . For the service of his Majesty, if it be objected, I am so far from
excusing it, that I am ready to alledge it in my vindication, I cannot conceit
that my fidelity to my prince should taint me in your opinion ; I should rather
expect it should recommend me to your favour. . . . You see, my Lord, how much
I presume upon the greatness of your spirit, that dare present my indictment
with so frank a confession, especially in this, which I may so safely deny that it
is almost arrogancy in me to own it ; for the truth is, I was not qualified enough
to serve him : all I could do was to bear a part in his sufferings, and to give
myself to be crushed with his fall. . . . My Lord, you see my crimes ; as to my
defence, you bear it about you. I shall plead nothing in my justification but
your Highness's clemency, which as it is the constant inmate of a valiant breast,
if you graciously be pleased to extend it to your suppliant, in taking me out of
this withering durance, your Highness will find that mercy will establish you
more than power, though all the days of your life were as pregnant with victories
as your twice auspicious third of September. Your Highness's humble and sub-
missive Petitioner." After his release, Cleveland came to London, " where he
found a generous Maecenas," and being much admired among all persons of his
own party, became a member of a club of wits and loyalists, which Butler, the
author of Hudibras, frequented. He died a little before the Protector, from an
epidemic intermitting fever.
To show how much Cromwell forgave in Cleveland, two extracts from his works
are subjoined. The first from The Character of a London Diurnal. " This
Cromwell is never so valorous as when he is making speeches for the Association ;
which, nevertheless, he doth somewhat ominously, with his neck awry, holding up
his ear as if he expected Mahomet's pigeon to come and prompt him. He should
be a bird of prey, too, by his bloody beak," &c. The second is Cleveland's
Definition of a Protector :
"What's a Protector ? He's a stately thing, An echo whence the royal sound doth come,
That apes it in the nonage of a king ; But jnst as barrel-head sounds like a drum :
A tragic actor Caesar in a clown : Fantastic image of the royal head, [tered :
He's a brass farthing stamped with a crown ; The brewer's with the King's arms quar-
A bladder blown, with other breaths puff'd He is a counterfeited piece, that shows
Not the Perillus, but Perillus' bull : [full; Charles his effigies with a copper nose :
^Esop's proud ass veil'd in the lion's skin ; In fine, he's one we must Protector call,
An outward saint lin'd with a devil within : From whom the King of kings protect us
Cleaveland's Revived Poems, p. 343, 8vo., 1687. all.]
422 CAVALIERS AND ROUNDHEADS.
George Wither is said to have got " The Statute Office" from Cromwell, " by
rhyming," but I have not found any song written by him in his favour. Wither
was a loser, rather than a gainer, by his advocacy of the cause of the Parliament,
for having been the first person of any note in the county of Surrey who took up
arms for the parliament, his house was destroyed, and his property injured to the
uttermost, when . the Cavaliers were there, and he could never obtain adequate
redress. His muse had been employed for some time before upon sacred subjects,
and he appears then to have given up song-writing altogether. The Rev. Robert
Aris Willmott, in his Lives of Sacred Poets, dates Wither' s accession to the
Statute Office between 1655 and 1656, and concludes that the appointment was,
in other words, to the Record Office, which was bestowed upon Prynne after
the Restoration. The passage from which I derived the information of his having
held the office is in " The last Speech and dying words of Thomas (Lord, alias
Colonel) Pride, being touched in conscience for his inhuman murder of the Bears
in the Bear garden, when he was High-Sheriff of Surrey," 4to., 1680. (Re-
printed in Harl. Miscellany, 4to., iii. 135.) " I do not mean Mr. George
Withers, for he got the Statue-office by rhyming, but when will he sell his
verses ? A statue lies upon them, so as no body will buy them."
I have said that the " remonstrance" of the " play-poets " that they should be
compelled to enter Martin Parker's society seemed to convey a covert threat to
those who closed the theatres, that they would become the subjects of ballads.
A few quotations from plays will perhaps best show how general was the fear of
being " balladed " in the seventeenth century.
" Good Master Sheriff, your leave too ;
This hasty work was ne'er well done : give us so much time
As but to sing our own ballads, for we'll trust no man,
Nor no tune but our own ; 'twas done in ale too,
And, therefore, cannot be refus'd in justice ;
Your penny -pot poets are such pelting thieves,
They ever hang men twice."
This is from an unfinished play of Fletcher's, The lloody Brother ; or, Rolla,
Duke of Normandy, which was one of those secretly performed " in the winter
before the King's murder." Again, in The Lover's Progress, act v., sc. 3, he
makes Malfort say : " I have penn'd mine own ballad
Before my condemnation, in fear
Some Rhymer should prevent me."
In the Humourous Lieutenant, act ii., sc. 2
" Now shall we have damnable ballads out against us,
Most wicked Madrigals ; and ten to one, Colonel,
Sung to such lamentable tunes."
In The Pilgrim, act iii., sc. 4 "I shall be taken
For their commander now, their General,
And have a commanding gallows set up for me
As high as a May pole, and nasty songs made on me,
Be printed with a pint pot and a dagger."
THE COMMONWEALTH. 423
In Rowley's A Woman never vext (1632), act i., sc. 1
" And I'll proclaim thy baseness to the world,
Ballads I'll make, and make 'em tavern music
To sing thy churlish cruelty."
In Ford's Tlie Lady's Trial, act ii., sc. 2
" You are grown a tavern talk
Matter for fiddlers' songs."
In Ford's Lovers Sacrifice, act iii., sc. 1
" Ballad singers and rhymers
Shall jig out thy wretchedness and abominations
To new tunes."
In Shirley's The Court Secret, act v., sc. 1
" I have prepar'd a ballad, Sir,
Before I die, to let the people know
How I behav'd myself upon the scaffold.
With other passages that will delight
The people, when I take my leave of the world,
Made to a Pavan tune."
In Davenport's T/ie City Night-cap, act i., sc. 1
" Let ballad-mongers crown him with their scorns."
In Killegrew's Parson's Wedding, act i., sc. 1
*' I'll put the cause in print too ; I'm but a scurvy poet, yet I'll make a ballad shall
tell how, &c."
The political importance of songs and ballads in aiding great changes, whether
reformatory, revolutionary, or otherwise, has been proved not only in our own
country, but in almost every other. A well-known passage in Andrew Fletcher
of Saltoun's Political Works (often quoted, but not always correctly given), is
so peculiarly to the purport, that I hope to be excused for again citing it.
" 3 knew a very wise man so much of Sir Christopher [Musgrave]'s sentiment,"
[a^ to the effect of songs and ballads, both in a political and moral sense], " that
he believed if a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not care
who should make the laws of a nation." (p. 266, 12mo., Glasgow, 1749.)
It was during the Commonwealth that " honest John Play ford " commenced
publishing music, and The Miglish Dancing Master, or plaine and easie rules
for the dancing of Country Dances, with the tune to each dance, appears to have
been his first musical publication. a Thomason has marked the date on the copy
among the King's pamphlets, as 10th of March, 1650, which, according to the
ne\\ style, would be 1651. In the preface, Play ford speaks of "the sweet and
air} activity of the Gentlemen of the Inns of Court, which has crowned their
B I find entries of books printed by Playford, as early In 1652, besides a second edition of The Dancing Master,
as 164?, in the Registers of the Stationers' Company, but he published Mustek's Recreation on the Lyra Viol,
no mi, nc before 1650, old style. In 1651, he published Hilton's Catch that Catch can (of which a second edition
" A M usical Banquet, in three books, consisting of Les- was printed in 1658), and Choice Ayres, &c. His musical
sons f..r the Lyra Viol, Allmains, and Sarabands, Choice publications after this date are (with the exception of the
Catch< s and Rounds," &c. A copy of this rare work is Court Ayres, referred to in the text) more generally
in the Douce Collection, Bodleian Library. Playford was known,
not on y a printer, but also Clerk of the Temple Church.
424 CAVALIERS AND ROUNDHEADS.
grand solemnities with admiration to all spectators." Some allusion has already
been made to their masques and dances, (ante p. 328, and note), to which I may
add, that the author of " Round about our Coal Fire, or Christmas Entertain-
ments," says, "the dancing and singing of the Benchers, in the great Inns of
Court, in Christmas, is in some sort founded upon interest ; for they hold, as
I am informed, some privilege, by dancing about the fire, in the middle of their
Hall, and singing the song of Round about our coal fire, &c. Leaving to the
gentlemen of the bar to determine what this privilege was, I will only add, that
the eulogy of their sweet and airy activity, is contained in every edition of The
Dancing Master to 1701 inclusive, but omitted in and after that of 1703.
A large proportion of the tunes in the first edition of The Dancing Master, are
contained in the present collection, because they are ballad tunes. Sir Thomas
Elyot, in his Grovernour, 1531, after describing many ancient modes of dancing,
says : " And as for the special names [of those dances], they were taken, as they be
rioiv, either of the names of the first inventors, or of the measure and number they
do contain ; or, of the first words of the ditty which the song comprehendeth, whereof
the dance was made." If this custom of naming them after the ditty had not been
retained in Playford's time, it would have been almost impossible now to identify
the tunes of our old ballads, for the words and music are very rarely to be found
together.
In 1655, Playford published "Court Ayres; or, Pavins, Almaines, Corants,
and Sarabands, Treble and Basse, for Viols or Violins ; " and reprinted them in
1662, with additions, under the title of " Courtly Masquing Ayres, containing
Almanes, Ayres, Corants, Sarabands, Moriscos, Jiggs," &c. In the preface to
the latter, he says, " About seven years since, I published a collection of ayres of
this nature, entitled Court Ayres, containing 245 lessons ; it being the first of that
kind extant, I printed, therefore, but a very small impression, yet when it was
once abroad, it found so good acceptance both in this kingdom and beyond seas,
that there it was reprinted to my great damage, and was the chief reason that
I publish' d it no more till now." The composers of this collection are William
Lawes, Dr. Charles Colman, John Jenkins, Benjamin Rogers, Davis Mell, John
Banister, William Gregory, Matthew Lock, and Thomas Gibbes. The republica-
tion abroad of the music of the English Court Masques, confirms, in some degree,
Lord Orford's view, that the Court of Charles I. was looked upon as " THE MOST
POLITE COURT IN EUROPE."
IN searching for the songs and tunes of this particular period, the reader will
find it necessary to refer to the first volume, as many of the oldest tunes were still
in use, such as John Dory, Old Sir Simon the King, Tom a Bedlam, &c. A very
small proportion of the songs now possess sufficient interest for republication; and
some are necessarily excluded, by their coarseness.
THE COMMONWEALTH. 425
HEY, THEN, UP GO WE.
This song, which describes with some humour the taste of the Puritans, might
pass for a Puritan song if it were not contained in The Shepherd's Oracles, by
Francis Quarles, 1646. Quarles was cup-bearer to Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia,
the daughter of James I.; was afterwards Secretary to Archbishop Usher (Primate
of Ireland), and Chronologer to the city of London. He died in 1644, and The
Shepherd's Oracles were a posthumous publication.
Other copies of the words will be found in MSS. Ashmole, 36 and 37, fol. 96 ;
ir Loyal Songs written against the Rump Parliament, i. 14 ; in Ellis's Specimens ;
and in Stafford Smith's Musica Antiqua. The music in the last named is not a
popular tune, but the work of some composer unknown. It is there printed from
a manuscript once in the possession of Dr. William Boyce.
Some differences will be found in the various copies ; for instance, in The Shep-
htrd's Oracles, the line, " Then Barrow shall be sainted," is, in Musica Antiqua,
" Then Burton shall be sainted," and in Loyal Songs, " Then Burges," &c. In
the last, there are two additional stanzas, and the tune is changed to one already
printed (ante p. 341). In Ashmole's manuscript, the song is entitled "The
Triumph of the Roundheads ; or the Rejoicing of the Saints."
D'Urfey calls this " an old ballad tune of forty-one" i.e., 1641. He wrote a
soag to the air, for his play of The Royalist, which was acted at the Duke's
Theatre in 1682. D'Urfey borrowed about five of the seven verses of Quarles'
song, making only a few verbal alterations. The last line of each stanza is,
" Hey, then, up go we," both in his play and in Quarles' song ; but in Pills to
purge Melancholy, and some other copies, u Hey, hoys, up go we." Hey, then, up
go we is quoted in A Satyr against Hypocrites, 4to., 1661.
Two other names for the tune are The clean contrary way, and The good old
cause. " The good old cause " meant the maintenance of the rights of the subject
against the encroachments of the king.
[n A Choice Collection of 120 Loyal Songs, &c.,12mo,, 1684, is " An excellent
new Hymn, exalting the Mobile to Loyalty," &c., " To the tune of Forty-one; "
commencing
" Let us advance the good old cause, 'Tis we must perfect this great work,
Fear not Tantivitiers, And all the Tories slay,
"Whose threat' nings are as senseless as And make the King a glorious Saint
Our jealousies and fears. The clean contrary way."
This is a mere alteration of a song by Alexander Brome, entitled " The Saint's
Encouragement; written in 1643," and printed in his Songs and other Poems,
12mo., 1644, (p. 164). It commences thus:
" F ght on, brave soldiers, for the cause, 'Tis you must perfect this brave work,
Fear not the Cavaliers ; And all malignants slay,
Their threat' nings are as senseless as You must bring back the King again
Our jealousies and fears. TJie clean contrary way."
In che collection of Loyal Songs written against the Rump Parliament, instead of
" The Saint's Encouragement," &c., Brome's song is headed " On Colonel Venne's
Encouragement to his Soldiers: A Song" (i. 104, edit. 1731.)
426 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
The dean contrary way is a very old, a and was a very popular burden to songs.
Some of the songs, however, like that on the Duke of Buckingham, reprinted by
Mr. Fairholt for the Percy Society (No. 90, p. 10) are in another metre, and
were therefore written to other tunes.
It appears, from some lines in Ohoyce Poems, $c., by the Wits of both Univer-
sities (printed for Henry Brome, 1661), that some ballad- singers had been
committed to prison, and threatened to be whipped through the town, for singing
one of these songs.
" The fiddlers must be whipt, the people say,
Because they sung The clean contrary way ;
Which, if they be, a crown I dare to lay,
They then will sing, the clean contrary way.
And he that did those merry knaves betray,
Wise men will praise (the clean contrary way) ;
For whipping them no envy can allay,
Unless it be the clean contrary way ;
Then, if they went the people's tongues to stay,
Doubtless they went the clean contrary way."
One of the songs was remembered in Walpole's time, for in a letter to Sir Horace
Mann, dated October 1, 1742, he says, " As to German news, it is all so simple
that I am peevish : the raising of the siege of Prague, and Prince Charles and
Marechal Maillebois playing at Hunt the Squirrel, have disgusted me from
enquiry about the war. The Earl laughs in his great chair, and sings a bit of an
old ballad : They both did fight, they both did beat,
They both did run away ;
They both did strive again to meet
The clean contrary way. ' '
Walpoles Letters, 1840, i. 231.
Among the numerous songs and ballads to this air the following may be
named :
1. " A Health to the Royal Family; or, The Tories' Delight : To the tune of
Hey, boys, up go we" (Pepys Coll., ii. 217.) Commencing
" Come, give's a brimmer, fill it up, Let rebels plot, 'tis all in vain,
'Tis to great Charles our King, They plot themselves but woe,
And merrily let it go round, Come, loyal lads, unto the Queen,
Whilst we rejoice and sing. And briskly let it go."
The clean contrary way, as a burden, may be traced, liol College, Oxford (No. 105, p. 250). Among the corn-
in Latin, to the fifteenth century, if not earlier, as, for plimentary verses prefixed to The Wife, by Sir Thomas
instance, in a highly popular song Overbury, 1616, one set is " To the clean contrary wife;"
" Of all creatures women be best, and the clean contrary way occurs among lines, signed
Cujus contrarium verum est." W. S., upon the death of Overbury, prefixed to his
Copies of that are contained in the Minstrels' Book, re- Characters, 1616.
printed by Mr. Wright for the Percy Society (Songs and There are many ballads to the tune, as " Half a dozen
Carols, p. 88), and in a Collection of Romances, Songs, of good Wives, all for a Penny," &c. Roxburge, i. 152 ;
Carols, &c., in the hand writing of Richard Hill, merchant, another, ii. 571 ; &c.
of London, from 1483 to 1535, now in the Library of Bal-
THE COMMONWEALTH. 427
2. A satirical song by Lord Rochester (Harl. MSS., 6913, p. 267)
' Send forth, dear Julian, all thy books Let all the ladies read their own,
Of scandal, large and wide, The men their failings see,
That ev'ry knave that in 'em looks From Nell to him that treads the throne,
May see himself describ'd. Then Hey, boys, up go we"
3. " The Popish Tory's Confession ; or, An Answer to the Whig's Exalta-
tion," &c. " A pleasant new song to the tune of Hey, boys, up go we" (Douce
Coll., 182) ; beginning
' ' Down with the ' Whigs, we'll now grow We'll make the Roundheads stoop to us,
Let's cry out " Pull them down," [wise, For we their betters be,
By that we'll rout the Good old cause, We'll pull down all their pride with speed,
And mount one of our own. Such Tories now are we."
This is on Papists calling themselves Tories (printed by J. Wright, J. Clarke,
W. Thackeray, T. Passinger, and M. Coles, B.L., temp. Charles II.) ; and is pre-
coded by eleven long lines, of which the following six contain the usual derivation
of " Tory " : " No honest man, who king and state does love,
Will of a name so odious approve,
Which^/iw/i the worst of Irish thieves at first
Had its beginning, and with blood was nurst.
Which shews it is of a right Popish breed,
As in their own confession you may read."
4 and 5. The last line perhaps alludes to "The Tories' Confession; or,
A merry song in Answer to the Whig's Exaltation : To the tune of Forty-one."
A copy of this (London, T. H., 1682) is in Mr. Halliwell's Collection, Cheetham
Library (No. 3010), as well as "A new ballad from Whig-land," to the same
air (No. 1045).
6. " The City's thankes to Southwarke for giving the army entrance "
(Sep. 1, 1647) " We thank you more than we can say,
But 'tis the cleane contrary way."
Tlds is among the King's Pamphlets, and reprinted in Wright's Political Ballads,
Percy Soc., No. 90, p. 70.
7. " The Thames uncas'd ; or, The Waterman's Song upon the thaw. To the
tune of Hey, boys, up go we" Commencing
" Come, ye merry men all, of Waterman's Hall,"
Sec Old Ballads illustrating the Great Frost of 1683-4, Percy Soc., No. 42, p. 30.
3. "Advice to Batchelors; or, The Married Man's Lamentation." Com-
mencing " You batchelors that single are,
May lead a happy life."
J). "The good Fellow's Consideration; or, The bad Husband's Amend-
ment," &c. " Lately written by Thomas Lanfiere,
Of Watch at town in Somersetshire."
(Roxburghe Coll., ii. 195. " Printed for P. Brooksby.")
10. " The good Fellow's Frolick; or, Kent Street Club. To the tune of Hey,
boy*, up go we ; Seaman's mournful bride; or The fair one let me in. Beginning
" Here's a crew of jovial blades
That lov'd the nut-brown ale." (Rax. Coll., ii. 198,)
428
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
11. "All is ours and our Husband's; or, The Country Hostess's Vindication:
To the tune of The Carman's Whistle, or Heigh, boys, up go we" (Roxburghe
Coll., ii. 8.)
12 and 13. " A Farewell to Gravesend ; " and " The merry Boys of Christmas,
or, The Milkmaid's New Year's Gift." (Roxburghe, vol. 4.)
It would be no difficult task to add fifty more to the above list, but it is already
sufficiently lengthy.
The tune is contained in The Dancing Master of 1686, and in every subsequent
edition; in 180 Loyal Songs, 1685 and 1694; in Pills to purge Melancholy,
ii. 286 (1719) ; and in the following ballad operas -.Beggars' 1 Opera, 1728 ; The
Patron, 1729 ; TJie Lover's Opera, 1629 ; Quaker's Opera, 1728 ; Silvia, 1731 ;
The Devil to pay, 1731 ; and Love and Revenge, N.D. In some copies it is in
common time, in others in | or
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THE COMMONWEALTH.
429
We'll break the windows which the whore
Of Babylon hath painted,
And when the Popish Saints are down,
Then Barrow shall be sainted ;
There's neither cross nor crucifix
Shall stand for men to see,
Rome's trash and trumpery shall go down,
And hey, then up go we.
Whate'er the Popish hands have built,
Our hammers shall undo,
We'll break their pipes, and burn their copes,
And pull down churches too j
We'll exercise within the groves,
And teach beneath a tree,
We'll make a pulpit of a cask,
And hey, then up go we.
We'll put down Universities,
Where learning is profest,
Because they practise and maintain
The language of the beast ;
We'll drive the doctors out of doors,
And all that learned be ;
We'll cry all arts and learning down,
And hey, then up go we.
We'll down with deans, and prebends, too,
And I rejoice to tell ye
W e then shall get our fill of pig,
And capons for the belly ;
We'll burn the Fathers' weighty tomes,
And make the school-men flee ;
We'll down with all that smells of wit,
And hey, then up go we.
The two last stanzas are not contained
If once the antichristian crew
Be crush'd and overthrown,
We'll teach the nobles how to stoop,
And keep the gentry down :
Good manners have an ill report,
And turn to pride, we see,
We'll therefore put good manners down,
And hey, then up go we.
The name of lords shall be abhorr'd,
For every man's a brother,
No reason why in church and state
One man should rule another ;
But when the change of government
Shall set our fingers free,
We'll make these wanton sisters stoop,
And hey, then up go we.
What though the King and Parliament
Do not accord together,
We have more cause to be content,
This is our sunshine weather ;
For if that reason should take place,
And they should once agree,
Who would be in a Roundhead's case,
For hey, then up go we.
What should we do, then, in this case,
Let's put it to a venture,
If that we hold out seven years' space,
We'll sue out our indenture.
A time may come to make us rue,
And time may set us free,
Except the gallows claim his due,
And hey, then up go we.
in Quarles' copy.
VIVE LE ROY.
A copy of this song, which may be termed the u God save the King" of
Chades L, of Charles II., and James II. , is to be found, both words and music,
in Additional MSS., No. 11,608, p. 54, British Museum. The tune is in MusicKs
Recreation on the Viol, Lyra-way, 1661 ; and in MusicKs Delight on the Cithren,
166<>. The words in Loyal Songs, i. 102, 1731.
The copy among the Additional Manuscripts is in three parts (treble, tenor,
and bass), but without a composer's name. The title, Vive le Roy, is derived
fron^ the burden of each stanza.
It is frequently alluded to, as in the song entitled " A la Mode : The Cities
profound policie in delivering themselves, their cittie, their works, and ammu-
nition, unto the protection of the Armie" (August 27, 1647), King's Pamphlets,
vol. v., folio; and Wright's Political Ballads, p. 64
" And now the Royalists will sing The Commons will embrace their King
Aloud Vice le Roy; With an unwonted joy."
430
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
And in " He that is a clear Cavalier," the first stanza ends
" Freeborn in liberty we'll ever be,
Sing Vive le Roy."
Again, in A Joco-serious Discourse, by George Stuart, 1686, a welcome to
James II., " the harmonious spheres sound Vive le Roy" (p. 3).
Among Mr. HalliwelPs Collection of Ballads is "England's Honour and
London's Glory, with the manner of proclaiming Charles the Second King of
England, this eighth of May, 1660, by the Honourable the two Houses of Par-
liament, Lord Generall Monk, the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Counsell
of the City. The tune is Vive la Roy." London, printed for William Gilbertson.
It begins " Come hither, friends, and listen unto me,
And hear what shall now related be ; "
and the burden is " Then let us sing, boyes, God save the King, boyes,
Drink a good health, and sing Vive le Roy"
^ Moderate time.
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THE COMMONWEALTH. 431
What though the wise make Alderman Isaac If you will choose them, do not refuse them,
Put us in prison and steal our estates, Since honest Parliament never made thieves,
Though we be forced to be unhorsed, Charles will not further have rogues dipt in
And walk on foot as it pleaseth the fates ; murder,
In the King's army no man shall harm ye, Neither by leases, long lives, nor reprieves.
Then come along, boys, valiant and strong, 'Tis the conditions and propositions
boys, [enjoy ; Will not be granted, then be not daunted,
Fight for your goods, which the Roundheads We will our honest old customs enjoy ;
And when you venture London to enter, Paul's not rejected, will be respected,
And when you come, boys, with fife and drum, And in the Quier voices rise higher,
boys, Thanks to the heavens and [cry] Vive le
Isaac himself shall cry, Vive le Roy. Roy.
LOVE LIES BLEEDING.
This tune is referred to under the various names of Love lies bleeeding, Law
lies bleeding, The Cyclops, The Sword, and The power, or The dominion, of the
Sword.
In The Loyal G-arland, fifth edition, 1686, is " The Dominion of the Sword :
A Song made in the Rebellion." Commencing
" Lay by your pleading, Law lies a bleeding,
Burn all your studies, and throw away your reading," &c.
It is also in Loyal Songs, i. 223, 1731 (there entitled "The power of the
Sword"); in Merry Drollery complete, 1661 and 1670; in Pills to purge
Melancholy, vi. 190 ; &c.
In the Bagford Collection, a song, " printed at the Hague, for S. Browne,
165'.)," is named "Chips of the old Block; or Hercules cleansing the Augean
Stable. To the tune of The Sword" It commences
" Xow you, by your good leave, sirs, shall see the Rump can cleave, sirs,
And what chips from this treacherous block will come, you may conceive, sirs."
Other copies of this will be found in King's Pamphlets, vol. xvi. ; in Rats
rhyned to death, 1660; and in Loyal Songs, ii. 53.
" Love lies a bleeding ; in imitation of Law lies a Heeding" is contained in
Merry Drollery complete, 1661 and 1670. There are also copies in ballad form
in which the tune is entitled The Cyclops.
" A new Ignoramus : Being the second new song to the same old tune, Law
lies a bleeding," was printed by Charles Leigh in 1681, and included in Rome
rhym'd to death, 8vo., 1683. It commences
" Since Popish plotters joined with bog-trotters,
Sham plots are made as fast as pots are form'd by potters."
This is included in 180 Loyal Songs, 1685 and 1694, with several other political
songs to the same tune. Among them, another " Ignoramus," beginning
" Since Reformation with Whigs is in fashion."
The tune of Love lies bleeding is contained in every edition of The Dancing
Master, from and after 1686 ; in 180 Loyal Songs, 1685 and 1694 ; in Walsh's
Dancing Master; in Pills to purge Melancholy; &c.
432
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
Li Shadwell's Epsom Wells, 1673, Clodpate sings " the old song, Lay ly your
pleading, Law lies a Ueeding ; " and perhaps Whitlock had the other song in his
mind when he said, " Both truth and love lie a bleeding." (Zootomia, or Present
Manners of the English, 1654.)
The title of the ballad is " Love lies a bleeding :
By whose mortal wounds you may soon understand,
What sorrow we suffer since love left the land.
To the tune of The Cyclops."
Smoothly ', and with marked accent.
?
'^m
I
Lay by your pleading, Love lies a bleed-ing, Burn all your po - e-try, And
throw a-way your read - ing,
Pie - ty is paint - ed, And
4
truth
is taint - ed,
^
Love is call'd a re - pro-bate, And schism now is saint - ed.
When we love did nourish, England did flourish,
Till holy hate came in and made us all so currish ;
Now every widgeon talks of religion,
But do.th as little good as Mahomet and his pigeon.
Each coxcomb is suiting his words for confuting,
But heaven's sooner gain'd by suff'ring than disputing;
True friendship we smother, and strike at our brother,
Apostles never went to God by killing one another.
He that doth know me, and love will shew me,
Finds the nearest and the noblest way to overcome me ;
He that hattfRbound me, or that doth wound me,
Winneth not my heart, he doth but conquer, not confound me.
In such condition, love is physician,
True love and reason make the purest politician ;
But strife and confusion, deceit and delusion,
Though they seem to thrive at first, will make a sad conclusion, &c.
THE COMMONWEALTH.
PRINCE RUPERT'S MARCH.
433
This is contained in the first and subsequent editions of The Dancing Master ;
in Elizabeth Rogers' MS. Virginal Book; in Gresangh der Zeeden, 12mo., Amster-
dam, 1648 ; &c.
Prince Rupert commanded the Royalists at the battle of Edgehill, in 1642.
He died and was interred with great magnificence in Henry the Seventh's
Chapel, Westminster Abbey, in 1682. He was a nephew of Charles I., and the
discoverer of mezzotinto, the hint of which he is said to have taken from seeing
a soldier scraping his rusty musket. The first mezzotinto print ever published
was the work of his hands, and may be seen in the first edition of Evelyn's
Sculptura.
The commencement of this march resembles The British G-renadiers, but is in
a minor instead of a major key. In G-esangh der Zeeden, there are words adapted
to it ; but I have not found any English ballad name. As " The Lawyers'
Lamentation for the loss of Charing Cross " (Loyal Songs, i. 247) suits the
measure, I have adapted the words to the tune.
/T t* _i 1 m
fl P *
(fh * ' ' m ~ 9\ 4+8
tZ 3 i
j *l * itJ
E2 M J S
2 ' J
J -1 -i-
"Un - done! un -done! "the
law - yers cry, And
ram - ble up and
r-H 1 I
t ). /i M 1 * m
--5 = j
-J d
J
n 1
<ra
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J
k i r f
r^_j . . 1
n 1
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' t a r P i
m d d
- *y m m . f
IP j *
m KZjE
-d 2 J "l
1 a "
J 9 "^
9 -- *
down, "We know not the way to
J
i
West - min - ster No\
-J-
v Charing Cross is
1 ! 1
1 r^ i *u -i P 1
t d d
~ d d~Td ^ r f
= ca
4 i 9 ?2
ol a
!
TTm ^ r f
" ^ -i
t J- J ^L
"'i i k_ ^ 1
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n J J
1 n 1 1
J J P m
, J J J * i
0L P
J J J
i P
2 * ! 3 ' ?-""' ?
S 5
J J r p
._ J. 4 99
dawn." Then fare thee well, old
m P
Char - ing Cross, Then fa
~r *
re thee well, old
. J ,
- ^1 * " r " ^ m
~ P P *
r
i
^ ' P 0) Ll
r
L J
U i I r r r
is n-j
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^ . 9 J-V ^-^~^
d^ d
d ^ hd H
^ ; g 1 * |^/ J 1
h^-J! J ? J
1 9 9 \-^-^-\
stump; Thou wast a thing set up
i j n c P j
i ^ 1_
by a king, And so pu
k,
H 1 ,
' i ^-^
11 'd down by the Rump.
_*_^i_^_ IL 5
^ -Sii:i-i '
1 ' VI
^ i
434 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
When at the bottom of the Strand, The Whigs they do affirm and say
They all are at a loss ; To Popery it was bent ;
"That's not the way to Westminster, For aught I know, it may be so,
We must go by Charing Cross." For to church it never went.
Then fare thee well, &c. Then fare you well, &c.
The Parliament did vote it down, The lawless Rump rebellious crew
A thing they thought most fitting, They were so damn'd hard-hearted,
For fear its fall should kill them all, They pass'd a vote that Charing Cross
In the House as they were sitting. Should be taken down and carted.
Then fare thee well, &c. Then fare thee well, &c.
Some letters about this Cross were found, Now, Whigs, I will advise you all
Or else it had been freed ; What I would have you do :
But I'll declare, and even swear, For fear the King should come again,
It could not write nor read. Pray pull down Tyburn, too !
Then fare thee well, &c. Then fare thee well, &c.
A different version of the above song will be found in Pills to purge Melancholy,
entitled "A Song made on the Downfall or pulling down of Charing Cross,
An. Dom. 1642 " (a wrong date, it should be 1647) ; and in Percy's Reliques
of Ancient Poetry. The music in the Pills is not a popular tune, but a compo-
sition by Mr. Farmeloe.
WHEN THE KING ENJOYS HIS OWN AGAIN.
This tune is in Elizabeth Rogers' Virginal Book (Add. MSS., 10,337, Brit.
Mus.) ; in Musictfs Recreation on the Lyra Viol. 1652 ; in Musictfs Delight on
the Cithren, 1666 ; in A Choice Collection of 180 Loyal Songs, 1685 and 1694 ;
and in the third volume of The Dancing Master, n.d.
The words are ascertained to be Martin Parker's, by the following extract
from The Gossips' Feast; or Morall Tales, 1647: "The gossips were well
pleased with the contents of this ancient ballad, and Gammer Gowty-legs replied,
' By my faith, Martin Parker never got a fairer brat : no, not when he penn'd
that sweet ballad, When the King injoyes his own again.'' " In The Poet's
Blind Man's Bough, 1641, Martin Parker says
" Whatever yet was published by me,
Was known by ' Martin Parker/ or ' M. P. ; '"
but this song was printed at a time when it would have been dangerous to give
either his own name or that of the publisher. Ritson calls this " the most famous
and popular air ever heard of in this country." Invented to support the de-
clining interest of Charles L, " it served afterwards," he says, " with more
success, to keep up the spirits of the Cavaliers, and promote the restoration
of his son, an event it was employed to celebrate all over the kingdom. At
the Revolution" [of 1688] "it of course became an adherent of the exiled
family, whose cause it never deserted. And as a tune is said to have been
a principal mean of depriving King James of the crown," [see Lillilurlero~]
" this very air, upon two memorable occasions, was very near being equally in-
strumental in replacing it on the head of his son. It is believed to be a fact,
that nothing fed the enthusiasm of the Jacobites, down almost to the present
reign, in every corner of Great Britain, more than The King shall enjoy his own
THE COMMONWEALTH. . 435
again ; and even the great orator of the party, in that celebrated harangue (which
furnished the present laureat with the subject of one of his happiest and finest
poems), was always thought to have alluded to it in his remarkable quotation
from Virgil ' Oarmina turn melms cum venerit ipse canemus ! ' "
Martin Parker probably wrote his song to the tune of Marry me, marry me,
quoth the bonny lass, for the air is to be found under that name in the Skene
Manuscript (time of Charles I.) ; and the song was evidently one familiar at the
timo. The following lines are quoted in Brome's play, The Northern Lass,
activ., sc. 4 (4to., 1632):
" Constance. Marry me, marry me, quoth the bonny lass,
And when will you begin ?
Widow. As for thy wedding, lass, we'll do well enough,
In spight o' the best of thy kin."
In the third volume of The Dancing Master, the tune is entitled The Resto-
ration of King Charles.
The words of When the King enjoys his own again, are in the Roxburghe
Collection of Ballads, iii. 256 ; in Mr. Payne Collier's Collection ; in The Loyal
Garland, containing Choice Songs and Sonnets of our late Revolution, London,
167], and fifth edit., 1686 (Reprinted by the Percy Society) ; in A Collection
of Loyal Songs, 1750 ; in Ritson's Ancient Songs ; &c.
Among the almost numberless songs and ballads that were sung to the tune,
I will only cite the following :
1. " The World turn'd upside down," 1646. King's Pamphlets, No. 4, fol.
2. " A new ballad called A Review of the Rebellion, in three parts. To the
tune of When the King enjoy es his rights againe" dated June 15, 1647. See
King's Pamphlets, vol. v., fol., and Wright's Political Ballads, p. 13.
3. " The last news from France ; being a true relation of the escape of the
King of Scots from Worcester to London, and from London to France ; who was
conveyed away by a young gentleman in woman's apparel ; the King of Scots
attending on this supposed gentlewoman in manner of a serving-man. The tune
is When the King injoyes, c." Printed by W. Thackeray, T. Passenger, and
W. Whitwood. Rox. Collection, iii. 54. It commences thus :
" All you that do desire to know His Highness away,
What is become of the King of Scots, And from all dangers set him free,
I unto you will truly show, In woman's attire,
-After the flight of Northern rats. As reason did require,
Twas I did convey And the King himself did wait on me."
4. "The Glory of these Nations; Or King and People's Happiness: Being
a brief relation of King Charles's royall progresse from Dover to London,
how tie Lord Generall and the Lord Mayor, with all the nobility and gentry of
the laiid, brought him thorow the famous city of London to his Pallace at West-
minster, the 29 of May last, being his Majesties birth-day, to the great comfort
of his loyall subjects. The tune is When the King enjoys his own again. 77 This
is one of six ballads of the time of Charles II., found in the lining of an old
2F
436 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
trunk, and now in the British Museum. Also reprinted in Wright's Political
Ballads, p. 223.
5. " A Countrey Song, intituled The Restoration, May, 1661. King's Pamph.,
vol. xx., fol. ; and Wright's Political Ballads, p. 265. Commencing
" Come, come away, The vicar is glad,
To the temple and pray, The clerk is not sad,
And sing with a pleasant strain ; And the parish cannot refrain
The schismatick's dead, To leap and rejoice,
The Liturgy's read, And lift up their voice,
And the King enjoyes his own again. That the King enjoy es his own again."
6. "The Jubilee ; or The Coronation Day," from Thomas Jordan's Royal Arbor
of Loyal Poesie, 12mo., 1664. As this consists of only two stanzas, and the
copy of the book, which is now in the possession of Mr. Payne Collier, is probably
unique, they are here subjoined :
" Let every man with tongue and pen All that do tread on English earth
Rejoice that Charles is come agen, Shall live in freedom, peace, and mirth ;
To gain his sceptre and his throne, The golden times are come that we
And give to every man his own : Did one day think we ne'er should see :
Let all men that be, Protector and Rump
Together agree, Did put us in a dump,
And freely now express their joy : When they their colours did display ;
Let your sweetest voices bring But the time is come about,
Pleasant songs unto the King, We are in, and they are out,
To crown his Coronation day. By King Charles his Coronation day."
7. " The Loyal Subject's Exultation for the Coronation of King Charles the
Second." Printed for F. Grove, Snow Hill.
8. " Monarchy triumphant ; or, The fatal fall of Rebels," from 120 Loyal
Songs, 1684 ; or 180 Loyal Songs, 1685 and 1694. Commencing
" Whigs are now such precious things, All roar, ' God bless and save the King/
We see there's not one to be found ; And the health goes briskly all day round."
In Dr. Dibdin's Decameron, vol. iii., a song called " The King enjoys his
right," is stated to be in the folio MS., which belonged to Dr. Percy.
Ritson mentions another, of which he could only recollect that the concluding
lines of each stanza, as sung by " an old blind North-country crowder," were
" Away with this cursed Rebellion ! It was a happy day,
Oh ! the 29th of May, When the King did enjoy his own agaan."
In the novel of Woodstock, Sir Walter Scott puts the last three lines into the
mouth of Wildrake, who is represented as perpetually singing, " The King shall
enjoy his own again."
It was not used exclusively as a Jacobite air, for many songs are extant which
were written to it in support of the House of Hanover ; such as
1. "An excellent new ballad, call'd Illustrious George shall come," in A Pill
to purge State Melancholy, vol i., 3rd. edit., 1716.
2. " Since Hanover is come : a new song." And
3. " A song for the 28th of May, the birth-day of our glorious Sovereign,
THE COMMONWEALTH.
437
King George," in A Collection of State Songs, Poems, c., that have been pub-
lished since the Rebellion, and sung at the several Mug-houses in the cities of London
and Westminster, 1716.
The copy of the ballad in Mr. Payne Collier's Collection is entitled " The King
enjoys his own again. To be joyfully sung with its own proper sweet tune." The
burthen of that, and of the Roxburghe copy, is " When the King comes home in
peace again," instead of "enjoys his own again," as in The Loyal Garland.
Neither of the ballads has any date or publisher's name ; and therefore both were
in all probability, privately printed during the civil war. The Roxburghe copy
has " God save the King, Amen," in large letters at the end.
What BOOKER canprog-nos - ti-cate Con - cerning kings or kingdoms' fate ? I
m
i
: d 1
1 ^mff\ ^ 1 p
i j H h |-
think my-self to
. be as wise As he th
at ga - zeth on the skies
u j |
!. My
^ CJ.
E-M-^ f
7 1 1 J ' r
f*
skil goes be-yond the depths of a POND, Or RI-VERS in the great- est . Where-
P5
PPS
n u\
^
-by I can tell A.11 things will be well, When the king en -joys his own a - gain.
i
There's neither Swallow, Dove, nor Dade, a
Can s >ar more high, or deeper wade ;
Nor shew a reason from the stars,
What causeth peace or civil wars :
Booker, Pond, Rivers, Swallow, Dove, Dade, and
HamiiK nil, whose names are mentioned in the ballad,
were ali astrologers and almanack-makers. Ritson copies
his nott j about Booker and others from a small pamphlet
The man in the moon may wear out his shoon,
By running after Charles his wain :
But all's to no end, for the times will not mend
Till the King, &c.
printed in 1711, entitled "The ballad of The King shall
enjoy his own again ; with a learned comment thereupon."
The account there given of Booker does not agree with
that of William Lilly, quoted in a note to Dodsley's Old
438 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
Though for a time we see Whitehall [Did Walker 6 no predictions lack
With cobwebs hanging on the wall, . In Hammond's bloody almanack?
Instead of silk and silver brave, Foretelling things that would ensue,
Which formerly it us'd to have, That all proves right, if lies be true ;
With rich perfume in every room, But why should not he the pillory foresee,
Delightful to that princely train, [shall be Wherein poor Toby once was ta'en ?
Which again you shall see, when the time it And also foreknow to the gallows he must go,
That the King, &c. When the King, &c. d ]
Full forty years the royal crown Till then upon Ararat's hill
Hath been his father's and his own ; b My Hope shall cast her anchor still,
And is there any one but he Until I see some peaceful dove
That in the same should sharer be ? Bring home the branch I dearly love ;
For who better may the sceptre sway Then will I wait till the waters abate,
Than he that hath such right to reign ? Which now disturb my troubled brain,
Then let's hope for a peace, for the wars will Else never rejoice till I hear the voice,
Till the King, &c. [not cease That the King enjoys his own again.
The following stanzas are not contained in The Loyal Garland, from which
Kitson reprinted the song :
Oxford and Cambridge shall agree And then all our trade shall flourishing be
With honour crown'd, and dignity ; To which ere long we shall attain ; [made,
For learned men shall then take place, For still I can tell all things will be well,
And bad be silenc'd with disgrace : When the King comes home in peace again.
They'll know it to be but a casualty Maideng ^ enjoy their mates>
That hath so long disturb'd their brain ; And nonegt men thdr logt ^^
For I can surely tell that all things will go well Women ghaU baye what , do ^
When the King comes home in peace again. ^^ husbands> who are coming back>
Church Government shall settled be, When the wars have an end, then I and my
And then I hope we shall agree All subjects' freedom shall obtain; [friend
Without their help, whose high-brain'd zeal By which I can tell all things will be well,
Hath long disturb'd the common weal ; When we enjoy sweet peace again.
Greed out of date and cobblers that do prate ^ h le now ^ . fear
Of wars that still disturb their brain ; [be ^ * ^
The which you shall see, when the time it shall ^.^ ^ th<m tremble at ^ j
That the King comes home in peace again. And jusfcice ghall keep ^ in awe .
Tho' many now are much in debt, The Frenchies shall flee with their treacherie,
And many shops are to be let, And the foes of the King asham'd remain : [be
A golden time is drawing near, The which you shall see, when the time it shall
Men shops shall take to hold their ware ; That the King comes home in peace again.
Plays, vol. xi., p. 469. Booker is mentioned by Killegrew, instrument-maker to them ; and having, with much ado,
in The Parson's Wedding, act i., sc. 2 ; by Pepys, in his got knowledge of their place of abode, was judged by the
Diary, Feb. 3, 1666-7; by Cleveland, in his Dialogue be- Roundheads fit for their purpose, and had a pension as-
tween two Zealots; and by Butler, in Hudibras. One of signed him to make the stars speak their meaning, and
his almanacks for 1661 was sold in Skegg's sale. Pond's justify the villanies they were putting in practice."
almanack is mentioned in Middleton's play, Nowit, no help Hammond's almanack was called "bloody," because he
like a woman's; and the Rev. A. Dyce, in a note upon the always put down in a chronological table when such and
passage, quotes the title of one by Pond, for the year such a Royalist was executed, by way of reproach to
1607. An almanack for the year 1636, " by William Dade, them.
gent., London, printed by M. Dawson, for the Company i> This fixes the date of the song to the year 1643. The
of Stationers," was once in my possession. According to number was changed from time to time, as it suited the
the pamphlet which Ritson quotes, Dade was "a good circumstances of the party.
innocent fiddle-string maker, who, being told by a neigh- Walker was a colonel in the army of the Parliament,
bouring teacher that their music was in the stars, set him- and afterwards a member of the Committee of Safety,
self at work to find out their habitations, that he might be * This stanza is not in the ballad copies.
THE COMMONWEALTH.
439
The parliament must willing be
T;iat all the world may plainly see
How they will labour still for peace,
That all these bloody wars may cease.
For some will gladly spend their lives to defend
The King in all his right to reign ;
So then 1 can tell all things will go well,
When, we enjoy sweet peace again.
When all these things to pass shall come,
Then farewell musket, pike, and drum :
The lamb shall with the lion feed,
Which were a happy time indeed.
O let us all pray we may see the day
That peace may govern in his name :
For then I can tell all things will be well
When the King comes home in peace again.
BY THE BORDER'S BIDE AS I DID PASS.
A border-song, entitled " Ballad on a Scottish Courtship," from Ashmolean
MSS., Nos. 36 and 37, Article 128. The tune is, in character, like
CavalUly man.
Ashmole held a captain's commission under Charles I., in the civil war, and
probably noted it down from hearing it sung.
- jrast.
/fi j=j
J > J_J*_
p| f 1
i | -j i fi.
>-*-* *-
hep - J '
k^* . j*
By the
He
bor- der'sside as
court - ed her in
f f p
I did pass,
Scot-tish words, Like
i r J ]
All in the time of
Ian - guage as the
^F ' ^ :H-
.-# ' .
-1 1 p
-[- k! * *
-r r *-!-
j K J J N
d
J 5 ""
-1 K-
hj * \ -K-
1 |
| -K-
^-- j 4 4
*
H P
d d
*j ? ^
^-ej. ^ . -Q
V^_ "
^-<Sr
^^ p m- -*
ss Were talk - ing love and lee.
rdsMy Joe, and 'gang' with me.
J : J : .^.
Lentonit was, I heard a Scotchman and his las
land affords, Wilt thou not leave these lairds andlo
F BP=2
P
9 m
_p H
1
P f; ^S r
-' F HI
c r
r
IX 1
t
ii
1
1
E >
M
^
^r
The song consists of forty lines, but I did not transcribe further.
FAIN I WOULD IF I COULD.
In The Dancing Master, from 1650 to 1665, this is entitled Fain I would if
I coild; and in the editions from 1670 to 1690 (with a trifling difference),
Parti >,enia, or Fain I would. In Elizabeth Rogers' MS. Virginal Book, the same
air is called The King's Complaint.
On-3 of the ballads among the King's Pamphlets, which bears the date of the
23rd Ipril, 1649, is "A Coffin for King Charles : A Crown for Cromwell : A Pit
for the People;" and the direction is that " you may sing this to the tune of
Fain I would" (vol. viii., fol., and reprinted in Wright's Political Ballads, 8vo.,
p. 117). It is a dialogue between Cromwell on the throne, King Charles in his
coffin, and the people in the pit. The date proves it to have been printed within
three months after the King's execution. It consists of fifteen stanzas, of which
three are subjoined. The first is
440
ENGLISH BONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
CROMWELL ON THE THRONE.
, moderate urns.
^_ *. 1 > --J
h 1 J . 1
j-. J h m i i ^
/fk fi
r+ #*
-*
-
t^T *
^ . j -cars
rrtv ' f
g . TTJ
1 P
- r i
2.2 (
Se D F
2 C
b i
2 . i
J \> i r
So, so, the deed
1
is done, The Roy - al head is se - ver'd, As I
tf
ilLO .
:
-t ^~
9 .
| J
: 1
"ft C
-N. "
* 1
B
^
'* j: ; ^'-T-'j: i i
meant when I first be - gun, And strong -ly have en - dea-vour'd. Now
f=MJ. J.I J -
^
K-^-.f , r J .... J.
> r s
...j^-x^ r
hr * t S
i J F
r
m m
r r ** '
scep-tre, wear the crown, Nor for
-f ^ P ^ *- - -. .-.. Jfc .
C I 1
Je - ho - van care.
1 9 ^"^-9 n
r t *
g H ; hH
""ar^"^
~
F II
V
P v , F
i r L
M 1 1
1 ^ ' 1 1
k r ^ - 1
I t
KINO CHARLES IN HIS COFFIN.
Think 'st thou base slave, though in my grave,
Like other men I lie ?
My sparkling fame and royal name
Can, as thou wishest, die ?
Know, caitiff, in my son I live
(The Black Prince call'd by some),
And he shall ample vengeance give
On those that did me doom.
THE PEOPLE IN THE PIT.
Suppress'd, depress'd, involv'd in woes,
Great Charles, thy people be,
Basely deceiv'd with specious shows
By those that murther'd thee.
We are enslav'd to tyrants' bests,
Who have our freedom won :
Our fainting hope now only rests
On thy succeeding son, &c.
CAVALILLY MAN.
This tune is contained in The Dancing Master of 1670, and in every subsequent
edition; in 180 Loyal Songs, 1G85 and 1694; in Pitts to purge Melancholy
(ii. 18, and iii. 65, 1707) ; in The Village Opera, and other ballad-operas.
A copy of the ballad from which the tune derives its name is in Mr. BalliwelFl
Collection, and the first stanza is here printed to the tune. " Cavalilly " means
" Cavalier."
THE COMMONWEALTH.
441
In Harl. MSS., No. 6,913, is a satirical song by Lord Rochester, to this tune;
commencing " Have you heard of a Lord of noble descent,
Hark I how the bells of Paradise ring ;
As a mask of his valour, to Tangier he went," &c.
In 120 Loyal Songs, 1684, are the following :
P. 196. " A new Litany to be sung in all Conventicles, for instruction of the
Whigs. Tune, Oavalilly man. 7 ' Commencing
" From councils of six, when treason prevails."
P. 213. " A song of The Light of the nation turn'd into darkness. Tune called
Cavalilly man" Commencing
" Come, all you caballers and parliament votes."
In the editions of 1685 and 1694 are several other songs, and the tune is, in
one instance, entitled Which nobody can deny. The song is on Titus Gates.
" Gates well thrashed; being a dialogue between a country farmer and his man,
Jack." The first stanza, and one other, end with the line, " Which nobody can
deny, sir;" from which, I assume, the name is (improperly) given to the tune.-
The original ballad is entitled " The North -country Maid's Resolution, and
Love to her Sweetheart: To a pleasant new Northern tune" " Printed for
F. Grove on Snow hill." It consists of eleven, stanzas of eight lines, besides the
following burthen of four, to each verse:
" G my dainty Cavalilly man, For God's cause and the Protestants',
My finnikin Cavalilly man, I prithee le* me gang with thee, man."
I imagine that there must have been longer versions of the tune than any
I have found, because, if only consisting of eight bars, it would be necessary to
sing these three times over for every stanza, including the burthen.
Cheerfully, and rather fast.
As from Newcastle I did pass, I
Un -to a jol-ly Cavalier blade, As
heard a blithe and bon - ny lass That
I sup -pose, her moan she made, For
e?5
m
Ml
in the Scot - tish ar - my was, Say, " Prithee let me gang with thee, man."
ev - er-more these words she said, "I'll fol-low my Cav -a - - ' lil - ly Man."
^ . \-t I -M- . = 1 M . =i=
442
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
THE GLORY OF THE NORTH.
This tune is contained in Elizabeth Rogers' MS.^ Virginal Book; in Hawkins'
Transcripts of Virginal Music; in MusicKs Recreation on the Lyra-viol; in
MusicJis Delight on the Oithren; and is among the violin tunes at the end of
The Dancing Master of 1665.
Boldly, and rather fast.
Come, Tom, foot it now, Troth, 1 long to dance, Strike up then, and let it go, And
1 -1 1 -1 *
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take steps like mine,
think none like we.
I
THE DEVIL'S PROGRESS.
In the Collection of Loyal Songs written against the Rump Parliament, i. 50, is
" The Sense of the House ; or the reason why those Members who are the
remnant of the two families of Parliament cannot consent to Peace, or an
Accommodation. To the tune of The New-England Psalm, Huggle-duggle, ho, ho,
ho, the Devil he laugh? d aloud" It begins
" Come, come, beloved Londoners, fie, fie, you shame us all!
Your rising up for peace will make the close Committee fall :
I wonder you dare ask for that, which they must needs deny,
There's thirty swear they'll have no peace, and bid me tell you why."
The ballad of The Devil's Progress on Earth, or Ifuggle-duggle (which is thus
proved to be as old as the time of Charles L), is contained in Pills to purge
Melancholy, vol. i., 1699 and 1707 ; or vol. iii, 1719, with the tune. The words
of the first stanza are very imperfectly printed in all editions. Three or four
words have here been added or altered from conjecture. " Airing " stands
"Airidg," in the Pills ; the word after "Pluto" is deficient; "And many a
THE COMMONWEALTH.
443
goblin more " is here changed to "O'er many a gobling crew" because a rhyme
is required to " too."
It was no doubt this ballad which suggested to Southey his DeviVs Walk.
^ Gracefully.
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Hug-gle, dug-gle, ha, ha, ha, The De-vil laugh'd a - loud.
Why think you that he laugh'd ?
Forsooth he came from court ;
And there, amongst the gallants,
Had spied such pretty sport :
There was such cunning juggling,
And ladies grown so proud
Huggle, duggle, &c.
With that into the City
Away the devil went,
To view the merchants' dealings
It was his full intent;
And there, along the brave Exchange,
He crept into the crowd
Huggle, duggle, &c.
He went into the City,
To see all there was well ;
Their scales were false, their weights were
Their conscience fit for hell ; [light,
And ' bad men ' chosen Magistrates,
And Puritans allow'd
Huggle, duggle, &c.
With that into the country
Away the devil goeth,
For there is all plain dealing,
And that the devil knoweth :
But the rich man reaps the gains,
For which the poor man plough'd
Huggle, duggle, &c.
With that the devil in haste,
Took post away to hell,
And told his fellow furies
That all on earth was well ;
That falsehood there did flourish,
Plain-dealing was in a cloud
Huggle, duggle, ha, ha, ha,
The devils laugh'd aloud.
444
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
THE GLORY OF THE WEST.
This is contained in The Dancing Master from 1650 to 1686 ; in MusicKs
Delight on the Cithren, 1666 ; and in Musictts Handmaid, 1678.
In a copy of The Dancing Master for 1665 (now in my possession), " Shall I,
mother, shall I," is written under The Glory of the West, as another name for the
tune. I have not succeeded in finding the words of either.
In the Bagford Collection, and in the Collection of Loyal Songs, is " The Glory
of the West ; or the tenth renowned worthy and most heroic Champion of the
British Islands: Being an unparalleled Commemoration of General Monk's coming
towards the city of London ;" but this cannot have been written in 1650, and the
words do not suit the measure of the tune. Nor does a later ballad, " The Glory
of the West ; or the Virgins of Taunton-Dean, who ript open their silk petticoats
to make colours for the late D[uke] of M[onmouth]'s army, when he came before
the town." The tune of that was the The Winchester Wedding.
Quickly, and marked.
Shall I, mother, shall I,
NONESUCH.
Two copies of this tune are contained in The Dancing Master of 1650 ; the
first as Nonesuch, the second as A. la mode de France. The second name is
derived from the ditty of a song which is here printed to the air.
A la mode de France is to be found in every edition of The Dancing Master
(sometimes in a major key and sometimes in a minor) ; in Musictfs Recreation
on the Lyra Viol, 1661; MusicVs Delight on the Cithren, 1666; and Youth's
Delight on the Flagelet, 1697.
In A short History of the English Rebellion, by Marchamont Needham, printed
THE COMMONWEALTH.
445
in 1661, but written while Charles I. was in prison, the author twice quotes the
burden, and perhaps wrote the whole poem to the tune. The metre is quite
suitable, as will be shown by the following stanzas, 93 and 97 :
" Never such rebels have been seen Then let us what our labours gain
As since we led this dance ; Enjoy, and bless our chance :
So we may feast, let prince and queen Like kings let's domineer and reign,
Beg, & la mode de France, &c. Thus, a la mode de France. 1 '
In Tlie Second Tale of a Tub, 8vo., 1715, one of the tunes called for by the
company is A la mode de France. In the Collection of Loyal Songs, i. 25, 1731,
the song is entitled " The French Report."
tt
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Me have of late been in England, Vere me have seen much
De rais - ing of de Par - liament Have quite pull'ddown de
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sport,
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De King and Queen dey se - pa -rate, And rule in i - gno -
ranee, Pray judge, ye gen -tie - men, if dis Be a la mode de France.
i r
AL vise man dere is like a ship
Dat strike upon de shelves,
Oey prison all, hehead, and vip
All viser dan demselves ;
Oey send out men to fetch deyr king,
Who may come home, perchance :
O fy, fy, fy, it is, be gar,
Not a la mode de France.
Oey raise deyr valiant prentices
To guard deyr cause vith clubs ;
Oey turn deyr Bishops out of doors,
And preash demselves in tubs :
De cobler and de tinker, too,
Dey vill in time advance ;
Gar take dem all, it is (mort Dieu)
Not a la mode de France.
Instead of bowing to deyr king,
Dey vex him vith epistles ;
Dey furnish all deyr souldiers out
Vith bodkins, spoons, and vhistles ;
Dey bring deyr gold and silver in,
De Brownists to advance,
And if dey be cheat of it all,
Tis a la mode de France.
But if ven all deyr vealth be gone,
Dey turn unto deyr king,
Dey vill all make amends again,
Den merrily ve vill sing,
Vive le Roy, vive le Roy,
Ve'll sing, carouse, and dance,
De English men have done^br^ bon,
And a la mode de France.
446 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
MY FATHER WAS BORN BEFORE ME.
In the fourth, and all subsequent editions of The Dancing Master, this tune is
entitled Jamaica. The island of Jamaica was taken from the Spaniards in 1655,
and the tune probably took the name from some song on that event.
The following were sung to it :
1. " The Prodigal's Resolution ; or. My Father was born before me " (Pills
to purge Melancholy, vol. i., 1699 and 1707). This is taken from Thomas
Jordan's London Triumphant, 4to., 1672. Jordan was the " professed pageant-
writer and poet laureat for the City, and if author of this song," says Ritson,
who includes it in his Ancient Songs, " he seems to have possessed a greater share
of poetical merit than usually fell to the lot of his profession." It begins
with the line, " I am a lusty, lively lad," which was probably suggested by,
and the tune taken from, an earlier song, beginning
" Heigh for a lusty, lively lad ; Heigh for a lad that's seldom sad,
Heigh for a lad lacks kissing ; But when "
These lines are from a medley of songs at p. 30 of Sportive Wit : The Muses'
Merriment, 8vo., 1656. I have not seen it complete, and it breaks off at the
words, " But when," into another song.
2. " Two Toms and Nat in council sat. To the tune of Jamaica" (State
Poems, continued, p. 140, 1697.)
4. " Slow men of London ; or The Widow Brown " (Pills, vi. 93). This is a
song of three Londoners being outwited by a Welshman, in a competition for
the Widow Brown. It consists of twelve stanzas, and commences thus :
" There dwelt a widow in this town In truth it has of late been told
That was both fair and lovely ; That many strove to have her.
Her face was comely, neat and brown : There were three young men of this town,
To pleasure she would move thee. Slow men of London,
Her lovely tresses shone like gold, And they'd go woo the Widow Brown,
Most neat was her behaviour ; Because they would be undone."
The last four lines form the subject of another song, which is printed in Watts'
Musical Miscellany, ii. 74, 1729. It consists of only sixteen lines, and is said to
have been sung in the play of Wit without Money ; I suppose on the revival of
Beaumont and Fletcher's play, about the year 1708, with alterations and, as the
title-page modestly asserts, " with amendments, by some persons of quality. " It
suggests the possibility of the longer song having been introduced in 1639
or 1661. There is a situation for one near the end of the play, but (according
to the Rev. A. Dyce) it is not printed either in the quartos or in the folio.
Three other songs are printed to the tune in Pills to purge Melancholy,..,
" The Angler's Song," beginning, " Of all the recreations," iii. 126 ; " Of the
Downfall of one part of the Mitre Tavern in Cambridge, or the sinking thereof
into the cellar," iii. 136 ; and " The Jolly Tradesmen," beginning, " Some time
I am a tapster new," vi. 91. Others will be found in the ballad-operas of Polly,
1729 ; Love and Revenge, n.d. ; &c.
" The Prodigal's Resolution " consists of eleven stanzas, of which three are
subjoined.
THE COMMONWEALTH.
447
Moderate time.
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i a lus - ty live - ly lad, Now come to one - and -
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- twen - ty, My fa - ther left me all he had, Both gold and sil - ver
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- dore me, I'll court and kiss, What hurt's in this? My dad did so be - fore me.
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My father was a thrifty sir,
Till soul and hody sundred :
Some say he was a usurer,
For thirty in the hundred :
H( scrap'd and scratch'd, she pinch'd and
That in her hody bore me ; [patch'd
Bu~, I'll let fly, good reason why,
My father was born before me.
My daddy has his duty done,
In getting so much treasure ;
I'll be as dutiful a son,
For spending it at pleasure :
Five pound a quart shall cheer my heart,
Such nectar will restore me ;
When ladies call, make love to all,
My father was born before me, &c.
THE CLEAR CAVALIER.
Tliis is the " effusion of loyal enthusiasm" which Sir Walter Scott puts into
the riouth of the worthy cavalier, Sir Geoffrey Peveril, in his novel, Peveril of
the Peak. The same lines are quoted by Shadwell in his Epsom Wells, where
Fribble says to the fiddlers, " Can't you sing
' Hey for Cavaliers, ho for Cavaliers,
Dub-a-dub-dub, have at old Beelzebub,
Oliver quakes for fear.' " Act v., sc. 1.
The song is attributed to Samuel Butler, author of Hudibras, and is printed in
448
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
his Posthumous Works; also in Westminster Drollery, part ii., p. 48, 1672; in
Loyal Songs written against the Rump Parliament, i. 249 ; in Pills to purge
Melancholy; &c.
The music is in a manuscript, once the property of Charles Morgan, of
Magdalen College, and bearing the date of 1682 ; in John Banister's Division
Violin, MS. ; in Apollo's Banquet for the Treble Violin ; and in the ballad-opera
of Love in a Riddle, 1729 ; &c. It was introduced, as " The Card Dance," in
Mrs. Behn's farce, The Emperor of the Moon, 1687.
n -oolMy.
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that he can - not d r i n k
and still sing Vive i e
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though he be a tat - ter'd sol - dier, Yet will skip and
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THE COMMONWEALTH.
449
hlj~
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prove All
-done He'll
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they who make sport of us Shall fall short of us, Fate will flat - ter them
shew his al-le- giance Love and o - be- dience, They will raise him up,
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And will scat-ter them, Whilst our loy - al-ty Looks to
Ho - nour stay him up, Vir - tue keep him up, We will
Royal-ty, We that live peaceful - ly
ise him up,While the vain courtiers dine
May he sue - cess-ful - ly Crown'dwith a crown at
With hot-ties full of wine, Ho - nour will hold him
last,
fast.
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Freely let's he then honest men, and kick at Fate,
For we shall live to see our loyalty be valued at high rate ;
He that bears a sword, or says a word against the throne
That doth profanely prate against the state, no loyalty can own.
What though plumbers, painters, players, now be prosperous men,
Let us but mind our own affairs, and they'll come round again.
Treach'ry may in face look bright, and lech'ry clothe in fur;
A traitor may bo made a knight, 'tis fortune de la guerre.
But what is that to us, boys, that are right honest men ?
We'll conquer and come again, beat up the drum again,
Hey for Cavaliers, ho for Cavaliers, drink for Cavaliers, fight for Cavaliers,
Dub-a-dub, dub-a-dub, have at old Beelzebub, Oliver quakes for fear.
Fifth Monarchy must down, boys, and every sect in town ;
We'll rally and to't again, give 'em the rout again ; [our own again :
Fly, like light about, face to the right about, charge 'em home again, seize
Tantara, rara, and this is the life of an honest, bold Cavalier.
OLD NOLL'S JIG.
This does not appear in The Dancing Master before the eleventh edition
(1701) ; but it is included in all later editions. The song, " When once Master
Love gets into your head," was sung to it.
It is scarcely necessary to say that " Old Noll " was the nickname given to
Oliver Cromwell by the Cavaliers; just as " Tumble-down Dick" was that of his
son Richard, and " Rowley," or " Old Rowley," that of Charles II.
Some wag named this jig after the Protector, for, although Cromwell delighted
in music, both vocal and instrumental, and skill in the art was a sure passport to
450
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
his favour, he certainly was not addicted to dancing. His manner of entertaining
the Ambassadors of Holland, on the occasion of the peace between the two
Commonwealths, would now be thought somewhat peculiar. After the repast,
during which there was music as usual, the Lord Protector took them " into
another room, where the Lady Protectrice and others came to us," says the
writer, " and there also we had music and voices, and a psalm sung which his
Highness gave them." (Thurloe's State Papers. The letter dated April
12th, 1654.)
f-.f.fr fc^ff f.f
MY NAME IS OLD HEWSON THE COBBLER,
This is one of the tunes introduced in the ballad-operas, The Jovial Crew, and
The G-rul Street Opera, both printed in 1731.
The Jovial Crew of 1731 was an alteration of Richard Brome's comedy of the
same name.
The words of the song have not been recovered ; but there appears little doubt
of their having been a political squib upon Colonel Hewson, who was one of
Charles the First's judges, and of those who signed his death-warrant.
John Hewson was originally a cobbler, and had but one eye. He took up arms
THE COMMONWEALTH.
451
on the side of the Parliament, and being a man of courage and resolution, soon
roso to be a colonel in their army. He was knighted by Cromwell, and after-
wards made one of his Lords. He quitted England immediately before the
Restoration, and died at Amsterdam in 1662,
There are numerous allusions to his former trade, and to his one eye, in the
Cavalier songs. For instance, in " A Quarrel betwixt Tower Hill and Tyburne"
(to be found in Merry Drollery Complete ; Loyal Songs; &c.)
" There is single-eyed Hewson, the Cobbler of Fate,
Translated into buff and feather ;
But bootless are all his seams of state,
When the soul is ript from the upper leather."
Two complete songs about him are in the Bagford Collection (643, m. 9, Brit.
Mus.) ; and in Loyal Songs, vol. ii.
The first, "A Hymn to the Gentle Craft; or, Hewson' s Lamentation. To the
tune of The Blind Beggar ; " but the name of the tune is intended as a joke
upon his one eye ; the words are not in a metre that could be sung to it.
" Listen awhile to what I shall say
Of a blind cobbler that's gone astray,
Out of the Parliament's highway :
Good people, pity the blind," &&
The second is "The Cobbler's Last Will and Testament; Or, the Lord
Hewson's Translation : " To Christians all I greeting send,
That they may learn their souk to mend,
By viewing of my cobbler's end" &c.
The Rev. Mark Noble, in his Memoirs of the Protectorate House of Cromwell,
i. 411, 8vo., 1784, quotes three stanzas of the above to prove that Elizabeth, the
lady of the Protector, had "a defect in one eye;" but the allusion is most
clearly to Hewsoru
Fast.
My name is old Hewson the cobbler.
I LIVE NOT WHERE I LOVE.
In the Roxburghe Collection, i. 68, is a ballad entitled " The constant lover :
Who his affection will not move,
Though he live not where he love.
To -i Northern tune, called Shall the absence of my Mistresse." It is subscribed
P. L., London, printed for Henry Gosson, and consists of twelve stanzas, the first
of which is as follows :
" You loyal lovers that are distant In singing sweetly and completely
From your sweet-hearts many a mile, In commendation of my love ;
Pray come help me at this instant Resolving ever to part never,
In mirth to spend away the while, Though I live not where I love"
452 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
In the same Collection, i. 320, is " A Paire of Turtle Doves, Or a dainty new
Scotch Dialogue between a yong man and his mistresse, both correspondent in
affection," &c. " To a pretty pleasant tune called The absence of my Mistresse,
or, I live not where I love" It is subscribed " Martin Parker," Printed at
London for Thomas Lambert at the Horse-shoe in West Smithfield, and com-
mences thus :
YONG MAN. " Must the absence of my mistresse,
Gar me be thus discontent,
As thus to leave me in distresse,
And with languor to lament," &c.
In the Pepys Collection, iv. 40, is another ballad by P. L., called " The valiant
Trooper and Pretty Peggy," &c. " To the tune of Though I live not where
I love" beginning :
" Heard you not of a valiant trooper With a kind salute, and fierce dispute,
That had his pockets well lin'd with gold, He thought to make her his only one ;
He was in love with a gallant lady, But unconstant woman, true to no man,
As I to you shall here unfold. Is gone and left her bird alone."
A ballad very much akin to the last is contained in Pills to purge Melancholy,
iii. 156, 1707, entitled " The unconstant woman. To a new tune" It begins :
" Did you not hear of a gallant sailor, With a kind salute, and without dispute,
Whose pockets they were lin'd with gold ; He thought to gain her for his own :
He fell in love with a pretty creature, Unconstant woman proves true to no man,
As I to you the truth unfold : She has gone and left me all alone."
It consists of eight stanzas, and ends thus :
" Since Peggy has my kindness slighted, In ship I'll enter, on seas I'll venture,
I'll never trust a woman more ; And sail the world where I'm not known :
In her alone I e'er delighted, Unconstant woman proves true to no man,
But since she's false I'll leave the shore : She's gone and left me here alone."
This last song is still sung about the country, sometimes to a tune resembling that
printed in the Pitts, but more commonly to this air. No tune seems to be more
generally known by tradition. I have been favored with copies from various and
widely distant parts of the country. Captain Darnell had learnt it from " old
Harry Smith, the fiddler, of Nunnington, near Kirby Moorside;" Mr. Edward
Loder had repeatedly heard it in the West of England. The late George Macfarren
recollected it, and the words he heard had the burden, "Hive not where I love."
This was before the Roxburghe Collection of ballads had been purchased for the
British Museum, and (having overlooked the one ballad in the Pepys Collection)
I did not know the burden to be so old. Although it is impossible to guarantee any
considerable antiquity to an air preserved solely by tradition, I think it a favor-
able circumstance that the measure should agree with that of the old ballads,
THE COMMONWEALTH.
453
which, I am sure, no one of my informants had seen. The versions from different
parte of the country differ in some points, especially in the terminations of the
phranes, but that might be expected, as it was gathered from untutored singers.
The following West Country version has a thoroughly Somersetshire ending. It
was given to me by Mr. Edward Loder, and the words written by the late George
Maci'arren.
Gracefully) and not too slow.
Fo - re
rest gems are round me growing, Wild birds chant their ca - rols free.
lake -let vy - ing With the calm-er heav'ns a - bove ;
Yet for o - ther scenes I'm sigh - ing, For I live not where I love
Graceful are the verdant bowers
Where the elm and linden grow,
A} id its bloom the chesnut showers
On the mossy bank below.
Yi-t give me that valley dreary
Where the mist- clad mountains rise,
And the eagle builds her eyrie,
Monarch bird of stormy skies.
Here the vine its clusters wreatheth,
There the pine its dark form shews ;
Here the zephyr mildly breatheth,
There the north wind keenly blows.
Dearest still, my boyhood's places ;
Oh ! for wings of woodland dove,
To greet the old familiar faces ;
For I live not where I love.
454
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
OH ! FOB A HUSBAND.
This song is taken from John Gamble's MS. common-place book, which has
already supplied several airs to this collection.
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THE COMMONWEALTH. 455
A.n ancient suitor hither came, But to her mother went this maid,
His head was almost grey ; And told her presently,
Though he was old, and she was young, That she a husband needs must have,
She would no longer stay ; And thus began to cry :
" Oh ! oh ! oh ! fora husband" &c.
The maiden fulfils the old adage of " marrying in haste and repenting at leisure,"
and, in the third and fourth stanzas, the burden of her song changes to
" Oh I oh ! oh ! with a husband Out upon a husband, such a husband,
What a life lead I! A husband, fie, fie, fie!"
AN OLD WOMAN CLOTHED IN GREY.
This tune is found in two forms, the first as An old woman clothed in grey, the
second, as Let Oliver now be forgotten. The difference in the music has, no doubt,
arisen from the different metres of the words adapted to it.
ID The Beggars' Opera, 1728, the song Through all the employments of life, is
written to the tune of An old woman clothed in grey. In Old Ballads, ii. 230,
1726, the song of " An old woman clothed in grey," is to the tune of Kind hus-
band and imperious wife. The song of " The kind husband but imperious wife,"
is contained in Westminster Drollery, 1671, and in Wit and Drollery, 1682, but
the tune is not named in either. Here, therefore, the pedigree halts. It should
be traceable higher, for I am convinced that such words as " Kind Husband"
never had music composed for them. They are a dialogue between a man and his
wife, and commence
" Wife, prithee come give me thy hand now,
And sit thee down by me ;
.There's never a man in the land now
Shall be more loving to thee."
A copy of An old woman clothed in grey, in Dr. Burney's Collection of songs,
with music (Brit. Mus.), has a manuscript date of 1662. Besides The Beggars'
Open, it was introduced in Henry Carey's Musical Century, vol. ii., and in the
balla-1 opera, The Humours of the Court, or Modern Gallantry, 1732.
Tl e song, Let Oliver now be forgotten, is said to be to the tune of How unhappy
is Pidllis in love. Both words and music are contained in 180 Loyal Songs, 1685
and 1694 ; and in Pills to purge Melancholy, ii. 283, 1719. The tune, without
word,^5, is in Baiter's Genteel Companion for the Recorder, 1683, and in Lady
Catherine Boyd's MS. Lyra Yiol book, lately in the possession of Mr. A. Blaikie.
Many political ballads were written to it under one or other of these names,
especially about the year 1680. For instance, in Mr. HalliwelPs Collection,
Cheer,ham Library, are, at fol. 171, "An excellent new ballad of the plotting
head. To the tune of Hoiv unhappy is Phillis in love ; or, Let Oliver now be
forgotten." Printed for R. Moor, 1681. At fol. 243, " Tony's Lamentation ;
or, Potapski's City Case, being his last farewell to the consecrated Whigs. The
tune is, Let Oliver now be forgotten," 1682. In 180 Loyal Songs, " The Con-
spiracy : or, The discovery of the fanatick plot, 1684 ; and in Mat. Taubman's
456
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
Heroic Poem and choice Songs and Medleyes on the times, " Philander," fol. 1682.
The following is to the version called An old woman clothed in grey
Cheerfully.
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I WOULD I WERE IN MY OWN COUNTRY.
This tune is in Sir John Hawkins' Transcripts of Music for the Virginals; also
in The Dancing Master, from 1650 to 1701, under the name of Grodesses.
A black-letter copy of the ballad, I would I were in my own country, is in the
Roxburghe Collection, ii. 367, entitled " The Northern Lasses Lamentation ; or
The Unhappy Maid's Misfortune ; " and prefaced by the following lines :
" Since she did from her friends depart, Being always fill'd with discontent;
No earthly thing can cheer her heart ; Resolving to do nought but mourn,
But still she doth her case lament, Till to the North she doth return.
To the tune, I would I were in my own country.'' 7 Printed for P. Brooksby at
the Golden Ball, in West Smithfield; and reprinted in Evans' Old Ballads,
i. 115 (1810).
T"ie following were sung to the same tune :
Pepys Coll., i. 266. " Newes frpm Tower Hill ; or
" A gentle warning to Peg and Kate
To walk no more abroad so late."
THE COMMONWEALTH.
457
"To the tune of The North-country Lasse; subscribed M[artin] P[arker].
London, printed for E. B. Begins, " A pretty jest I'll tell."
Koxburghe Collection, ii. 112. "The Dumb Maid; or, The young Gallant
trepann'd," &c. " To a new tune called Dum, dum, dum, or I would I were in
my own country" This is an earlier version of a song already printed (ante
p. 120) , which begins, " There was a bonny blade." It seems to have been intended
for the tune of The Duke of Norfolk, or Dum, dum, dum, rather than for this.
It commences
" All you that pass along, give ear unto my song,
Concerning a youth that was young, young, young,
And of a maiden fair, few with her might compare ;
But alack ! and alas ! she was dumb, dumb, dumb."
Douce Collection, p. 135. " The Lancashire Lovers ; or, The merry wooing of
Thomas and Betty," &c. To the tune of Love's Tide, or At home would I be in
my own country." This, which is black-letter, printed by Wright, Clarke,
Thackeray, and Passinger (early, Charles II.), has also the burden
" The oak, and the ash, and the ivy tree,
Flourish bravely at home in my own country ; "
^/ Rather slowly, and with feeling and expression.
A North-Country lass Up to London did pass, Although with her na-ture it
did not a - gree, Which made her re - pent, And so of - ten la - ment, Still
i
wish - ing a - gain in the North for to be. O the oak, and the ash, and the
hon-ny i - vy tree Do flou - rish at home in my own coun - try
458
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
Fain would I be in the North-country, [hay ;
Where the lads and the lasses are making of
There should I see what is pleasant to me ;
A mischief light on them entic'd me away !
the oak, the ash, and the bonny ivy tree,
Do flourish most bravely in our country.
Since that I came forth of the pleasant North,
There's nothing delightful I see doth abound,
They never can be half so merry as we,
When we are a dancing of Sellinger's Round.
O the oak, the ash, and the bonny ivy tree,
Do flourish at home in our own coutry.
I like not the Court, nor to City resort,
Since there is no fancy for such maids as me ;
Their pomp and their pride I can never abide,
Because with my humour it doth not agree.
O the oak, the ash, and the bonny ivy tree,
Do flourish at home in my own country.
How oft have I been on the Westmoreland
green, [for to play,
Where the young men and maidens resort
Where we with delight, from morning till night,
Could feast it, and frolic, on each holiday.
O the oak, the ash, and the bonny ivy tree,
Do flourish most bravely in our country.
A milking to go, all the maids in a row,
It was a fine sight, and pleasant to see ;
But here, in the city, they're 'void of all pity,
There is no enjoyment of liberty.
O the oak, the ash, and the bonny ivy tree,
They flourish most bravely in our country.
When I had the heart from my friends to de-
part,
1 thought I should be a lady at last;
But now do I find that it troubles my mind,
Because that my joys and pleasures are
past.
O the oak, the ash, and the bonny ivy tree,
They flourish at home in my own country.
The ewes and the lambs, with the kids and
their dams,
To see in the country how finely they plaj' ;
The bells they do ring, and the birds they do
sing, [and gay.
And the fields and the gardens, so pleasant
O the oak, the ash, and the bonny ivy tree,
They flourish most bravely in our country.
At wakes and at fairs, being 'void of all cares,
We there with our lovers did use for to dance ;
Then hard hap had I, my ill fortune to try,
And so up to London my steps to advance.
O the oak, the ash, and the bonny ivy tree,
They flourish most bravely in our country.
But still, I perceive, I a husband might have,
If I to the city my mind could but frame ;
But I'll have a lad that is North-country bred,
Or else I'll not marry, in the mind that I am.
O the oak, the ash, and the bonny ivy tree,
They flourish most bravely in our country.
A maiden I am, and a maid I'll remain,
Until my own country again I do see,
For here in this place I shall ne'er see the face
Of him that's allotted my love for to be.
the oak, the ash, and the bonny ivy tree,
They flourish at home in my own country.
Then farewell, my daddy, and farewell, my
mammy,
Until I do see you, I nothing but mourn ;
Rememb'ring my brothers, my sisters, and
others,
In less than a year I hope to return.
Then the oak, the ash, and the bonny ivy
tree, [country.
1 shall see them at home in my own
THE BROOM, THE BONNY BROOM.
In the Pepys Collection, i. 40, is a black-letter ballad, entitled The new Broome
[on hill~\. London, printed for F. Coles. It consists of seven stanzas, and
commences thus :
" Poore Coridon did sometime sit And, thinking that none else was nie,
Hard by the broome alone, He thus began his song : [broome,
And secretly complain'd to it The bonny broome , the well favoured
Against his oniy one. The broome blooms Jaire on hill;
He bids the broome that blooms him by What aiVd my love to lightly mee,
Beare witness to his wrong, And I working her will ?"
The second line of the burden recalls the " bunch of ballads and songs, all
THE COMMONWEALTH. 459
ancient; as Broom, broom, on hill" &c., which are mentioned in Laneham's
Letter from Kenilworth, 1575 ; also the lines sung by Moros, in Wager's
The longer thou livest the more fool thou art, an interlude which appears to have
been written soon after Elizabeth came to the throne. In that, Moros enters,
" oounterfaiting a vaine gesture and a foolish countenance, synging the foote of
many songes, as fooles were wont ; " the first of which is
Brome, brome on hill, Brome, brome on Hive hill,
The gentle brome on hill, hill : The brome stands on Hive hill-a."
This repetition does not give the metre or the correct words of the song. The
tune, or upper part, was to be sung by one person, while others sang a foot, or
burden, to make harmony. So, in the same play, Idlenesse says
" Thou hast songes good stoare, sing one,
And we three t\\Q foote will beare."
In The Dancing Master, from 1650 to 1698, and in Musictfs Delight on the
Ciihren, 1666, is a tune entitled Broom, the bonny, bonny broom. I believe this
to be the tune of The new broome on hill, as well as of another ballad in the same
metre, and issued by the same printer, entitled " The lovely Northern Lasse
Who in the ditty here complaining shewes
What harme she got milking her daddies ewes."
To a pleasant Scotch tune, called The broom of Oowdon Knowes" London,
printed for Fr. Coles, in the Old Bayly (Mr. HalliwelPs Collection). This is the
English ballad of The broom of Cowdenowes, and the tune is here said to be
Scotch. I believe it not to be Scotch, for the following reasons : Firstly, the
tune is not in the Scottish scale, and is to be found as a three-part song in
Addit. MSS., No. 11,608 British Museum (the same that contains Vive le Roy,
before quoted, and written at the end of Charles the First's reign). Secondly,
because English tunes or songs were frequently entitled " Scotch," if they related
to Scottish subjects, or the words were written in imitation of the Scottish dialect ;
(so with Lilliburlero, Purcell's tune is called "a new Irish tune" in Musictfs
Hcndmaid, not because it is an imitation of Irish music, nor even a new tune, but
because a new song on Irish affairs) ; and I rely the more upon this evidence
from having found many other ballads to the tune of The broom, the bonny, bonny
broom, but it is nowhere else entitled Scotch, even in ballads issued by the same
printer. Thirdly, Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, quotes it as a common
English country tune. Under the head of " Love Melancholy Symptoms of
Love" (edit, of 1652), he says, " The very rusticks and hog-rubbers . . . have
thi'ir Wakes, Whitson-ales, Shepheard's feasts, meetings on holidays, Country
Dances, Roundelays, writing their names on trees, true lovers' knots, pretty gifts.
. . . Instead of Odes, Epigrams and Elegies, &c., they have their Ballads, Country
tui ies, the broom, the bonny, bonny broom ; Ditties and Songs, Bess a Bell she
doth excel : they must write likewise, and indite all in rhime." Fourthly, because
1650 is too early a date for Scotch tunes to have been popular among the lower
classes in England: I do not think one can be traced before the reign of
Charles II. It is a common modern error to suppose that England was inun-
dated with Scotch tunes at the union of the two crowns. The first effect was
460 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
directly the reverse, and the popularity of Scotch tunes in England should rather
be dated from the reign of James II. I shall hereafter have occasion to revert to
this subject, and therefore will not further enlarge at present.
I know of no other copy of The new broome on hill than the one in the Pepys
Collection, but am persuaded it is a reprint of a much earlier ballad. Such lines
as " To ease my grieved grone" seem to point to the " doleful dump " period of
poetry ; and the tune not being named, is an indication of its having been copied
from one of the earlier part of Queen Elizabeth's reign, or perhaps even before.
The ballad of Brome on hill in Mr. Gutch's Robin Hood, ii. 363, is a modern
fabrication.
The broom of Cowdon Knowes is a long story in two parts. Besides the copy
in Mr. Halliwell's Collection, it will be found among the Roxburghe Ballads,
i. 190 ; and is reprinted in Evans' Old Ballads, i. 88, 1810. The following are
the two first stanzas :
" Through Liddersdale as lately I went, Fain would I be in the North Country,
I musing on did passe ; To milk my daddies ewes.
I heard a maid was discontent, My love into the fields did come,
She sigh'd and said, alas ! When my daddy was at home ;
All maids that ever deceived were, Sugar'd words he gave me there,
Bear a part of these my woes, Prais'd me for such a one ;
For once I was a bonny lasse, His honey breath and lips so soft,
When I milkt my daddies ewes. And his alluring eye,
With the broom, the bonny broom, His tempting tongue hath woo'd me oft,
The broom of Cowdon Knowes ; Now forces me to cry.
All maids," &c.
The balled which follows The new broom in the Pepys Collection is " The
Complaint of a Sinner. To the tune of The bonny broome (i. 41). It com-
mences, " Christ is my love, he loved me," and has but a slightly different
burden.
In the Roxburghe, i. 522, is " John Hadland's advice ; Or, a warning for all
young men that have meanes, advising them to forsake bad company, cards, dice,
and queanes. To the tune of The bonny, bonny broome" Subscribed R[ichard]
Cpimsall], and " Printed at London for Francis Coules." It commences
" To all men now I'll plainly shew For I have wrought my overthrow,
How I have spent my time ; With drinking beer and wine," &c.
In the same Collection, iii. 174, is a ballad by M[artin] P[arker], called "The
bonny Bryer ; or
" A Lancashire lass her sore lamentation
For the death of her love and her own reputation.
To the tune of The bonny broome" It commences
" One morning early by the break of day, At last I spyed, within my ken,
Walking to Totnam Court, A blyth and buxome lasse. [bryer,
Upon the left hand of the high-way, Sing the bryer, the bonny, bonny
I heard a sad report : The bryer that is so sweet ;
I made a stay, and look'd about me then, Would I had stayed in Lancashire,
Wond'ring from whence it was, To milk my motlwr's neate"
THE COMMONWEALTH.
461
This was " Printed at London for F[rancis] G[rove] on Snow Hill." Again, in
the same Collection, i. 380, is " Slippery Will ; or, The old Bachelor's Complaint,
with his advice to all yong men not to doe as he had done
His youthful time he spent away, That he that will not when he may,
Which makes him now this proverb say, When he would) he should have nay"
To the tune of The bonny, bonny broome." It commences
But one did all the rest excell,
And that was pretty Nanny.
young men all, to you I cry and call.
Make not too long delay,
For if you will not when you may,
When ye would, ye shall have nay."
London, printed for E. B.
" Long have I liv'd a bachelor's life,
And had no mind to marry,
But now I would fain have a wife,
Either Doll, Kate, Sis, or Mary.
These four did love me very well,
I had my choice of many ;
Six stanzas, with a second part of eight.
Rox. Coll., ii. 575. "The forlorn Lover's Lament. To the tune of The bony
brocm" Black-letter (printer's name cut off) ; beginning
" Sir, do not think these lines have flow'd
From youthful hearts or hands," &c.
There are a great number of English songs and ballads on the subject of
" broom" and " bonny broom," but the enumeration would exceed the space I could
devote to it. I will therefore cite but one more, and from a very early and
scarce book. In Bale's Comedy concernynge the Lawes of Nature, 1538, in the
second act, is a song, with a staff of five lines ruled for writing in the music,
which is as follows :
" Brom, brom, brom, brom, brom, Bromes for shoes and powcherynges,
Bye brom, bye, bye, Botes and buskins for new bromes.
Brow, brom, &c.
Slowly.
O the broom, the bonny, bonny broom,The broom of Cow-don Knowes Fain
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The first Scotch song of The broom of Oowdenknows was printed in Allan
Ramsay's Tea Table Miscellany, 1724. It is there classed among the "new
words by different hands ; " and commences, " How blyth ilk morn was I to see."
The subject of the older English burden is there retained.
The above version of the tune is not so good as that in The Beggars'* Opera,
or in Thomson's Orpheus Oakdonius ; but those copies are of more than seventy
years later date.
462 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
I AM A POOR SHEPHERD UNDONE.
This tune has two names, I am a poor shepherd undone, and Hey, ho, my honey.
It is found in The Dancing Master of 1665 ; next, in the edition of 1686, and
in all later : in Pills to purge Melancholy, vi. 284 : in Apollo's Banquet for thy
Treble Violin, &c.
In the King's Pamphlets, vol. 15, fol. ; in the Bagford Collection, p. 67 ; in
Loyal Songs, ii. 67 ; and in Wright's Political Ballads, p. 146, are copies of
"A proper new Ballad on the Old Parliament, or the second part of Knave
out of doores. To the tune of
Hei, ho, my honey, my heart shall never rue ;
Four-and -twenty now for your money, and yet a hard pennyworth too."
The copy in the King's Pamphlets is dated Dec. 11, 1659. The ballad begins
" Good morrow, my neighbours all, what news is this I heard tell," &c.
In the Roxburghe Collection, ii. 54, and Collier's Roxburghe Ballads, p. 298,
are " A Caveat for young men, or The bad husband turn'd thrifty," &c. " To
the tune of Hey, ho, my honey" beginning " All you young ranting blades that
spend your time in vain," by John Wade. Printed by W. Thackeray,*
T. Passinger, and W. Whitwood.
Ritson quotes Wade as the author of a ballad entitled " The Maiden's sad
Complaint for want of a Husband, &c. To the new West Country tune, or Hogh
when shall 1 be married" It commences thus :
" Oh ! when shall I be married, My father hath forty good shillings,
Oh ! be married ? Oh ! good shillings,
My beauty begins to decay ; And never a daughter but me ;
'Tis time to find out somebody, My mother is also willing,
Oh ! somebody, Oh ! so willing,
Before it is quite gone away. That I shall have all if she die."
The black-letter copy of this ballad in the Douce Collection (p. 67) was printed
for Richard Burton, at the Horse Shoe in West Smithfield (time of the Com-
monwealth). It consists of 14 stanzas, three of which (beginning with " My
father has forty good shillings") have been appropriated in Collections of Scotch
Songs.
Hey, ho, my honey, is also one of the tunes to which a The valiant Seamen's
Congratulation" to Charles II. on his accession, was to be sung (ante p. 292).
In Pills to purge Melancholy, the following is entitled "The distress'd
Shepherd : "
-j0#p p lifj *T****] P^ j ip : 1
1 , ,
pl
fe
-.u-J J a
I am a poor shepherd im - done, And
Fora maid -en as bright as the sun Has
f m ~P~ "
can -not be cur'd by
sto - len a - way my
m m -
\ -+f n \ f * P
m m
ft" 1 3 E 1 '
-f f i
1 E
F
THE COMMONWEALTH.
463
=F i 11 I*
j j j
i
*^=-fH rr.^^Tfh
art; . And
he.irt. . '
5 : H] .
how
--F
J -h- 3=-- ^
to get it a - gain There's
|3 r s : p -"- |K =
bT> ' ^-JC
none but she can
-f - r J f
M- 1 j. ^* ^
4-1
1 ' E
-j r i-
Or cure me of my pain, By
r
say - ing she loves me
jF^n~^
i r
~. . is r*i
j
,_
- fn *
n i j
i ^ * \
-
! g) 1 w
1- * S3*
^ j-_; i ' j- " '
well. And a - las! poor
shep - herd, A
H 1~$-
lack and
well - a -
W . h
J-'-i
L_| ^ l
-j = J &
i r \
'- 4-
If to love me she would not incline,
I said I should die in an hour;
" To die," said she, "is in thine,
But to love you is not in my power."
"1 ask'd her the reason why
She could not of me approve ;
She said 'twas a task too hard,
To give any reason for love.
She asked me of my estate,
I told her a flock of sheep ;
The grass whereon they graze,
And where she and I might sleep :
Besides a good ten pound,
In old King Harry's groats;
While hooks and crooks abound,
And birds of sundry notes.
And alas ! poor Shepherd, &c.
And alas ! poor Shepherd, &c.
CHRISTMAS'S LAMENTATION.
The words and tune of this ballad are contained in Gamble's MS. common-
place book. The ballad is also in the Roxburghe Collection, i. 48, entitled
"Christmas' Lamentation for the losse of his acquaintance; showing how he is
forst to leave the Country, and come to London. To the tune of Now the Spring
is come."
The ballad, "Now the Spring is come," is in the same Collection, i. 200,
entitled " A Lover's desire for his best beloved; or, Come away, come away, and
do net stay. To an excellent new Court tune" It commences thus:
464
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
" Now the Spring is come, turn to thy love, Their sweet tunes, their sweet tunes, their
To thy love, to thy love, to thy love ; and do not stay : [sweet tunes,
make no delay. "Where I will fill thy lap full of flowres,
While the flowers spring and the birds do And cover thee with shady bowres,
sing Come away, come away, come away,
And do not stay."
This copy of the ballad, having been printed by the assigns of Thomas Symcocke,
is of the reign of James L Christmas' s Lamentation must also be a ballad of the
reign of Elizabeth or James L, although the Roxburghe copy is not of so early
a date. Yellow starch is mentioned in the sixth stanza, and it came into fashion
in the latter part of the reign of Elizabeth, and continued until November, 1615,
the date of the execution of the celebrated beauty, Mrs. Turner, for participation
in the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury. When the Lord Chief Justice Coke
sentenced her to death, he ordered that, " as she was the person who had brought
yellow starched ruffs into vogue, she should be hanged in that dress, that the
same might end in shame and detestation." " Even the hangman who executed
this unfortunate woman was decorated with yellow ruffs on the occasion."
(Rimbault's Life of Overbury.)
The rhythm of the first part of the following tune is peculiar, from its alternate
phrases of two and three bars, but, still, not unsatisfactory to the ear.
I have not thought it necessary to print, at length, all the repetitions of words
that occur in the ballad, as they are sufficiently indicated by the first stanza
which is here adapted to the music.
-^ u Moderate time.
/* -? f\ 1 ^
-3 * 9 4
2
, ' 1
C ) ^ * "^ ^ ^ *
-C P * ? 8
- J J ^
a% 1
Christ - mas is my name, far have I gone, Have I gone, have I gone, Havel
b (/
1 1
. j _ . . p [.
fi j J . ^1 rn E 1^] J i t .
- f a zH
*~r * S j *
*~*" * * -
I 1 ^ 8 1
=F=?=
F P il
gone, with-out re - gard ; Where -as great men by flocks there be flown, There be
1 , , ft. - . , ^ -r- -1 -
i P
x^n
i
i
-^ i i
^-* ^T :
^ _i
i i
I
4-*
^ I
flown, there be flown, There be flown to Lon-don - ward.
There they in pomp and
Houses where mu - sic was
THE COMMONWEALTH.
465
}lea - sure do waste
vont for to ring,
That which old Christ-mas waa wont - ed to feast, Well-a
No - thing but bats and owl - ets do sing. Well-a
=^p:
-c ay ! well-a - day,
Well-a - day, where should I stay ?
i
j=a=i
PP
^
Christmas beef and bread is turn'd into stones,
Into stones and silken rags ;
Ai d Lady Money sleeps and makes moans,
And makes moans in misers' bags :
Houses where pleasures once did abound,
N( ught but a dog and a shepherd is found,
Welladay !
Places where Christmas revels did keep,
N< w are become habitations for sheep.
Welladay, welladay,
Welladay, where should I stay ?
Pan, the shepherd's god, doth deface,
Doth deface Lady Ceres' crown,
Ai d the tillage doth go to decay,
To decay in every town ;
Landlords their rents so highly enhance,
That Pierce, the ploughman, barefoot may
Welladay! [dance;
Fa rmers, that Christmas would still entertain,
Sc irce have wherewith themselves to maintain.
Welladay, &c.
Come to the countryman, he will protest,
Will protest, and of bull-beef boast ;
Ai d for the citizen he is so hot,
Is so hot, he will burn the roast.
Th e courtier, sure good deeds will not scorn,
N< r will he see poor Christmas forlorn ?
Welladay !
Sii ce none of these good deeds will do,
Christmas had best turn courtier too.
Welladay, &c.
Pr de and luxury they do devour,
Do devour housekeeping quite ;
Ai d soon beggary they do beget,
Do beget in many a knight.
M .dam, forsooth, in her coach must wheel,
Although she wear her hose out at heel,
Welladay !
And on her back wear that for a weed,
Which me and all my fellows would feed.
Welladay, &c.
Since pride came up with the yellow starch,
Yellow starch, poor folks do want,
And nothing the rich men will to them give,
To them give, but do them taunt ;
For Charity from the country is fled,
And in her place hath nought left but need ;
Welladay !
And corn is grown to so high a price,
It makes poor men cry with weeping eyes.
Welladay, &c.
Briefly for to end, here I do find,
I do find so great vacation,
That most great houses seem to attain
To attain a strong purgation : [shew'd,
Where purging pills such effects they have
That forth of doors they their owners have
Welladay ! [spued ;
And where'er Christmas comes by, and calls,
Nought now but solitary and naked walls.
Welladay, &c.
Philemon's cottage was turn'd into gold,
Into gold, for harbouring Jove :
Rich men their houses up for to keep,
For to keep, might their greatness move ;
But in the city, they say, they do live,
Where gold by handfulls away they do give :
I'll away,
And thither, therefore, I purpose to pass,
Hoping at London to find the golden ass.
/'// away, I'll away,
I'll away, for here's no stay.
466
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
WHEN LOVE WAS YOUNG.
The words and music of this song are contained in Gamble's MS. common-
place book.
Moderate time.
9 n is
1 h 1 h
i b
, c
N
EJ5 o J
i
d- d
_H H , f^_
sn "
t ...
^fc
! -
a
1
J 9
J -3- -J- * -i- -d- +
When Love was young, and men were strong, And maids be-liev'd them
Y^-f fy s 1 B 1 B m ^H =i a
J
=j
-f !
i 1
P
-h^H jr-f j
5-
-1 t-f-^J
3 R i
-4- -= l r M
3 , j
_j j ^ aj ,
-5 P ^ K-L
<j^>- - T- ' bl ^ ^ V
true, A shep-herd came, with pret - ty song, Un - to a maid, to
L. ^ i * n -= k--|. M - h-i _ ^ J.-.r i.
J s
-* =1 F *
r * j . ^
woo: "O fair, O sweet, Shall I con-sume in sor - row ?" " Pluck
-I
Si
-1 J* J >
m fl
r-4 1* i ^n
j
|_^ J__i $ |
-^ J^j J3-
-5 f~1 FT"
~l 1
*
S ^'
J !
I II
up thy heart, thou
r r r M
gen - tie swain, And
if r J T q
I'll be thine to - mor - row."
[-T H -_f J . H
1 | - * g 1
-I 1 ^ -L-
-4-
He gave her gloves as white and soft
As were the hands that wore 'em,
And many a leafy garland, sweet
As were the brows that bore 'em.
He woo'd, she sigh'd,
The shepherd then was merry ;
He stole a kiss, the loving maid
Blush'd red as any cherry.
He danc'd her many a roundelay,
And footed it full fine ;
The flow'rs of broom he deck'd with may,
All for his Rosaline.
He said, he swore,
He lov'd her best of any ;
She pinch'd his cheeks, and, sighing, said,
"O, shepherd, thou lov'st many."
He said that he was ever true
And constant, from his mother;
"When I am gone, thou'lt have a new,
And after her another."
"O no! " "O yes! "
" Believe it, pretty maid."
" I do believe : " and then they kiss'd,
And thus they wantons play'd.
467
REIGNS OF CHARLES II.,
JAMES II., AND WILLIAM AND MARY.
the restoration of Charles II. may be dated an entire change in the style
of music till then cultivated in England. The learned counterpoint and con-
trivance of madrigals and motets in vocal music, and of fancies in instrumental
music, fell gradually out of esteem, and were replaced by a lighter and more
melodious style of air ; such as could be better appreciated by uncultivated ears.
The viol, hitherto the chief instrument for chamber concerted music, was
gradually replaced by the violin, and the supremacy of the lute in vocal music
was then first contested by the guitar.
Charles II. had passed the greater part of his life in exile ; where sauntering,
dancing, and dallying with his mistresses, had been his principal occupation.
One of his letters of that time is so characteristic, that it is here subjoined
entire. It was written from Cologne, and addressed to his " deerest aunte," the
Queen of Bohemia. The orthography is preserved, as by no means the least
curious part ; it would have disgraced a school-boy.
" Colleti, Augt. 6 [1655].
"Madam, I am just now begining this Letter in my Sisters Chamber, wher
ther is such a noise that I never to hope to end it, and much less write sence. For
what concernes my sisters journey and the accidents that happened in the way,
I leave her to give your Ma*y an account of. I shall only tell your Maty that we are
now thinking of how to passe our time; and in the first place ofdanceing, in which
we find to difficnltyes, the one for want of the fidelers, the other for somebody both
to teach and assist at the danceing the new Dances : and I have gott my sister to send
for Silvius as one that is able to performe both : for the fideldedies, my L d Taaffe does
promise to be there convoy, and in the meane time we must contente our selves with
those that makes no difference between a himme and a coranto. I have now receaved
my sisters picktnre that my deare cousin the Princess Louise was pleased to draw,
and do desire your Ma*? thank her for me, for 'tis a most excellent pickture, which is
all I tan say at present, but that I am, Madame,
Your Ma ties most humble
and most affectionate nephew and servant
Charles R.
The original letter is in MS. Lans. 1236 (fol, 106), British Museum; and a
copy is printed in the second series of Original Letters illustrative of English
Histo>"y, edited by Sir H. Ellis, iii. 376. On the 18th of the same month, Charles
wrote, from Bruges, to Henry Bennet (whom he afterwards created Earl of
Arlington), "Pray get me pricked down as many new Corants and Sarabands,
and onher little dances, as you can, and bring them with you, for I have a small
fidler that does not play ill on the fiddle." And on the 1st of September of the
following year, in another letter to the same person, " You will find, by my last,
that though I am furnished with one small fidler, yet I would have another to
2n
468 VIOLS AND VIOLINS.
keep him company ; and if you can get either he you mentioned, or another that
plays well, I would have you do it."
The King knew enough of music to take his part in an easy composition ; and,
after his restoration, would sometimes sing duets with " that stupendous base,"
Mr. Gostling, of the Chapel Royal, the Duke of York (afterwards James II.)
accompanying them on the guitar. The Hon. Roger North says that Charles
" was a professed lover of music, but of this " [dancing] " kind only ; and had an
utter detestation of fancies," or other compositions in the fugal style ; and, not the
less so, from an unsuccessful entertainment of that kind given him by Secretary
Williamson ; " after which, the Secretary had no peace, for the King, as his way
was, could not forbear whetting his wit upon the subject of the fancy-music, and
its patron the Secretary. He would not allow the matter to be disputed upon
the point of meliority, but ran all down by saying, Have I not ears ? He could
not bear any music to which he could not keep time, and that he constantly did to
all that was presented to him ; and, for the -most part, heard it standing." Pepys
describes him as beating time with his hand " all along the anthem," in the
Chapel Royal ; and Dr. Tudway accuses the young composers of his Chapel of
having so far given way to the King's French taste, as to introduce dancing
movements and theatrical corantos into their anthems.
Speaking of the "grand metamorphosis of music" that took place in this
reign, the Hon. Roger North says, " Upon the Restoration, the old way of
concerts were laid aside at court, and the King made an establishment after the
French model, of twenty-four violins [tenors and bases being counted among
them], and the style of the music was accordingly." Wood says, "he would
have the twenty-four violins playing before him while he was at meals ; " but
Evelyn, speaking of a visit to the Chapel Royal, on Dec. 21, 1662, says, that,
after one of His Majesty's Chaplains had preached, " instead of the ancient,
grave, and solemn wind music [cornets and sackbuts] accompanying the organ,
was introduced a concert of twenty-four violins, between every pause, after the
French, fantastical, light way; better suiting a tavern or playhouse than a
church."
Violins had long been the favorite instruments for dancing, whether with
common fiddlers or at court. They were probably first included in the Royal
band, under the name of violins, in the fourth year of the reign of Queen
Elizabeth (1561) ; and the sum then paid to performers on that instrument was
230/. 6s. Sd. (MS. Lansd. No. 5). Ten years after, there were seven " vyolons,"
at an annual cost of 325. 15s. (MS. Cotton, Vesp. c. xiv.). Charles the First's
band, in 1625, consisted of eight hautboys and sackbuts, six flutes, six recorders,
eleven violins, six lutes, four viols, and a harp (exclusive of drummers, trumpeters,
and fifers) ; and in 1641 it numbered fifty-eight musicians, of whom fourteen were
violins. So far as the antiquity of the instrument is concerned, it may be traced
back to the Anglo-Saxons, for the modern violin is but an improvement upon the
ancient fiddle in shape. The curious may see in a manuscript of the tenth
century, in the British Museum (Cotton, Tiberius c. vi.), an illumination of an
REIGN OF CHARLES II.
469
Anglo-Saxon gleeman, or minstrel, playing on his "frSele," which has four
strings, the two sound-holes, and is played on by a bow ; but in shape is more
like the half of a long pear, very taper towards the stalk. This shape would
have been very inconvenient for reaching high notes, but the use of the upper
part of the finger-board was then unknown. a
The reason why viols had been preferred to violins, tenors, and violoncellos, for
cham oer-music, was simply this: until the reign of Charles II., the music played
was in close counterpoint, of limited compass for each instrument, and in
from three to six parts, every visitor being expected to take a part, and generally
at sight. The frets of the viols secured the stopping in tune, which one in-
different ear in the party might otherwise have marred.
The violin had " a lift into credit " in Cromwell's time, by the arrival in
England of Thomas Baltzar, a celebrated performer on that instrument, born at
Lubeck. The Hon. Roger North says " he did wonders upon it by swiftness and
doubling of notes, but his hand was accounted hard and rough." Evelyn, in his
Diary (March 4, 1656), says, "His variety on a few notes and plain ground,
with that wonderful dexterity, was admirable. Though a young man, yet so
perfect and skilful, that there was nothing, however cross and perplext, brought
to him by our artists, which he did not play off at sight, with ravishing sweetness
and improvements, to the astonishment of our best masters." Wood speaks of him
with equal enthusiasm, and adds that, after his arrival, Mr. Davis Mell, who had
been accounted the best violin player in England, was not so admired ; " yet he
played sweeter, was a well-bred gentleman, and not given to excessive drinking
as Baltzar was."
At the Restoration, the King appointed Baltzar leader of his private band of
twenty-four; and, about the same time, according to Wood, "he commenced
Bachdar of Musick at Cambridge." Baltzar died in 1663, and Charles then
appointed John Banister in his place. Banister, however, was afterwards dis-
missed for saying on his return from France (whither the King had sent him),
that the English violins b were better than the French. At that time, and for
many years before, the favorite entertainments of the French court were ballets,
This- fiddle has been engraved in Strutt's Sports and
Pastimet of the People of England, and in Wackerbarth's
Music a id the Anglo Saxons, 8vo., 1837.
b The names of Charles the Second's private band of
24, and :he sums they received in the year 1674, which
amounted to 1433 17s. 8d., are given in a note at p. 98
of Menu irs of Musick, by the Hon. Roger North, edited
by Edward F. Rimbault, LL.D., from a document in his
possession. It is as follows : " The Gentlemen of his
Majesties Private Musick paid out of the Excheker,
s. d.
Fho. Purcell ...
Pelham Humphreys
John Hardinge
William Hawes ...
Tho. Blagrave, sen.
\\t. Marsh
fohn Goodgroome .
*at. Watkins ...
200
40
46 10 10
40 9 2
40
40
40
Mat. Lock ...
John Clayton
Izaack Stagins, sen.
Nich. Stagins, jun.
Tho. Battes ...
John Lilly
Hen. Gregory
Theoph. Hills ...
Hen. Madge ...
John Gambell ...
Rich. Dorney
John Banister, sen.
Phil. Beckett
Rob. Blagrave, jun.
John Singleton
Rob. Strange
15 May, 1674.
s. d.
40
152 13 4
... 46 10 10
46 10 10
... 90
40
60
46 10 10
86 12 8
46 10 10
20
100
60 2 6
58 4 2
46 10 10
46 10 10
(Signed) T. PCRCELL.
470 CHANGES IN INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC.
and the music of the most inartificial description. The treble part contained the
whole of the melody, the base and interior part being mere accompaniment, with-
out variety, and inferior in counterpoint. France had then produced fewer good
musicians than any country in Europe ; and when, about 1660, Lully (a Floren-
tine by birth, but brought up in France from ten years of age) was placed at the
head of a band of violins, created for him by Louis XIV., and called Les petits
Violons, to distinguish them from the twenty-four, " not half the musicians in
France were able to play at sight." Even the famous band of twenty-four were
incompetent, says La Borde, to play anything they had not specially studied
and gotten by heart. They were, therefore, in this respect, inferior to English
gentlemen in their own art. Nor did Lully effect any great reform in this
respect, for when the Regent, Duke of Orleans, wished to hear Corelli's Sonatas,
which were newly brought from Rome, no three persons in Paris could be found
to play them. He was obliged to have them sung by three voices. This is related
by Michael Corette (a strong partizan of French music), in the Preface to his
Methode d'Accompagnement, and quoted from him by M. Choron. Corette was
organist of the Jesuits' College in Paris in 1738. Louis XIV. died in 1715.
I conjecture the reason of Charles the Second's preference for French music to
have been, in a great measure, because, as dance-music, it was not so generally
composed upon old scales as were the " Fancies," which were then the principal
chamber-music of England. Some of those scales sound very harshly to un-
initiated ears. There was also a rhythm in dance-music, which would bear the
King's test of beating time, and it was the only style admired at the French
Court, the gaieties and laxities of which, during exile, had formed so agree-
able a contrast to the austere presbyterianism of his Scottish subjects, as to have
inspired him with a predilection for everything French.
To those who are curious to know what fancies, or fantasies, were, I recommend
the perusal of the Fantasies of three parts [for viols] composed by Orlando
Cribbons, printed in the early part of the reign of James I. Having been re-
printed by the Musical Antiquarian Society, they are more accessible than any
other. To those who are satisfied with the judgment of another, I submit the
following analysis by one who is thoroughly versed in the music of the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries, Mr. G. A. Macfarren :
" The fantasies of Orlando Gibbons are most admirable specimens of pure part-
writing in the strict contrapuntal style ; the announcement of the several points, and
the successive answers and close elaboration of these, the freedom of the melody of
each part, and the independence of each other, are the manifest result of great scho-
lastic acquirement, and consequent technical facility. Their form, like that of the
madrigals and other vocal compositions of the period, consists of the successive intro-
duction of several points or subjects, each of which is fully developed before the entry
of that which succeeds it. The earlier fantasies in the set are more closely and ex-
tensively elaborated, and written in stricter accordance with the Gregorian modes, than
those towards the close of the collection, which, from their comparatively rhythmical
character, and greater freedom of modulation, may even be supposed to have been
aimed at popular effect. They would, it is true, be little congenial to modern ears,
REIGN OF CHARLES II. 471
but this is because of the strangeness to us of the crude tonal system that prevailed
at tlio time, and upon which they are constructed. The peculiarities that result from
it are the peculiarities of the age, and were common to all the best writers of the
school in this and every other country. Judged by the only true standard of criticism,
juc ged merely as what they were designed to be, they must be pronounced ex-
cellent proofs of the musical erudition, the ingenious contrivance, and the fluent
invention of the composer."
Before the introduction of fantasies, says the Hon. Roger North, "whole
consorts for instruments of four, five, and six parts were solemnly composed,
and with wonderful art and invention, whilst one of the parts (commonly in the
middje) bore onely the plain song throughout. And I guess that, in some time,
little of other consort musick was coveted or in use. But that which was styled
In Nomine, was yet more remarkable, for it was onely descanting upon seven
notes, with which the syllables In Nomine Domini agreed. And of this kind
I have seen whole volumes of many parts, with the several authors' names in-
scribed. And if the study, contrivance, and ingenuity of these compositions to
fill the harmony, carry on fugues, and intersperse discords, may pass in the
account of skill, no other sort may plead so more ; and it is some confirmation
that in two or three ages last bygone the best private musick, as was esteemed,
consisted of these.' 7 A volume of In Nomines, formerly in the possession of
the North and L'Estrange families, is now in that of Dr. Rimbault. They are
in five, six, seven, and eight parts; and among the composers are Shepherd,
Taverner, Tye, Munday, Tallis, Byrd, &c. Among the earlier writers of
fantasies whose works are still extant, are Robert White (the well-known church
composer, who died before 1581), Byrd, Morley, Dr. Bull, Michael Este or East,
Ferabosco, Cooper, and others.
Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book contains numerous fantasies for that in-
strument, including one by John Munday, " Faire Wether, Lightning, Thunder,
Calmc Wether, &c. ; " and in Lady Nevill's, we have a composition by Byrd,
entitled " The Battell," with the following movements : " The March of Foote-
men ; The March of Horsemen ; The Trumpetts ; The Irish Marche ; The Bag-
pipe !,nd Drone; The Flute and Drone; The March to fight; Tantara; The
Battells be joyned ; The Retreat ; and The Galliarde for the Victorie."
Speaking of " Musick designed for Instruments," Christopher Simpson says,
" Of this kind, the chief and most excellent for art and contrivance are Fancies
of six. five, four, and three parts, intended commonly for viols. In this sort of
Musick the composer (being not limited to words) doth imploy all his art and
invention solely about the bringing in and carrying on these Fuges according to
the order and method formerly shewed. When he has tried all the several ways
which he thinks fit to be used therein, he takes some other point and does the
like with it; or else, for variety, introduces some chromatick notes, with bindings
and intermixtures of discords ; or falls into some lighter humour like a Madrigal,
or what else his own fancy shall lead him to ; but still concluding with something
which hath art and excellency in it/'
Among the lighter kinds of instrumental music, were Pavans. Galliards
472 MUSIC OF LONDON.
Corantos, &c. ; and, in the reign of James I., such collections as that of " Courtly
Masquing Ayres, composed to five and six parts, for Violins, Consorts, and
Cornets, by John Adson, a 1621 ;" and others already mentioned.
Roger North says, " The French manner of instrumental music did not gather
so fast as to make a revolution all at once; but, during the greater part of
Charles the Second's reign, the old music was used in the country and in many
meetings and societies in London. But the treble viol was disregarded, and the
violin took its place." English musicians were willing to give the palm to the
Italians in vocal music, after the invention of recitative; but they claimed to
rank above every nation in instrumental music ; and, so far as I can trace, that
claim was commonly admitted and well founded.
" None give so harsh a report of Englishmen as the English themselves," says
Henry Lawes, a remark which is too frequently true; but it is a national
peculiarity, the boundary of which is strongly marked by the river Tweed, and
which, happily for our neighbours, has never extended to the northern bank of
that stream. Charles, although of Scottish descent, was born far south of it ;
and to his opinion I would oppose that of Count Lorenzo Magaiotti, a Florentine,
and one of the most eminent characters of the brilliant court of Ferdinand II.,
Grand Duke of Tuscany. Magaiotti (to whom Sir Isaac Newton gave the name
of " il magazzino del buon gusto") wrote his journal while making a tour in
England in 1669, and acting as Secretary to the hereditary Prince of Tuscany,
afterwards Cosmo III. In describing the plays that were represented at the
London theatres, he says, " Before the comedy begins, that the audience may
not be tired with waiting, the most delightful symphonies are played ; on which
account, many persons come early to enjoy this agreeable amusement" (Travels
of Cosmo III., Grand Duke of Tuscany, p. 191, 4to., Lond., 1821). This is un-
fortunately the only notice of secular music throughout the diary, for his object
was to describe the country and to collect statistics, rather than to draw com-
parisons of manners and customs, or of the state of the arts.
We have also favorable testimony from the Sieur de la Serre, Historiographer
of France, who accompanied Mary de' Medici to London, in 1638. He
says, in his " description of the city of London," that " in all public places,
violins, hautboys, and other sorts of instruments are so common, fbr the amuse-
ment of particular persons, that, at all hours of the day, one may have one's ears
charmed with their sweet melody." Again, " The excellent musicians of the
Queen of Great Britain sang," &c. I have read many accounts of foreigners
travelling in England in and before the seventeenth century, but never yet found
one to speak with the slightest disparagement of the music. The criticism,
which is usually to be found in their travels, is invariably favorable.
Roger North, giving credit to the Italians for having first printed Fantasias,
says that " the English, working more elaborately, improved upon their pattern,
The above work was "printed by T. S., for John is in Marsh's Library, Dublin. They are the " Cantus,
Browne, and to be sold in St. Dunstan's Churchyard, in Tenor, Bassus, Medius, and Sextus." Adson composed
Fleet Street." It was dedicated to " George, Marquisse one popular tune to which ballads were sung, called
of Buckingham." A copy of five, out of the six parts, "Adson's Saraband."
REIGN OF CHARLES II. 473
which gave occasion to an observation, that in vocal the Italians, and in
instrumental music the English excelled." (p. 74).
Tuscany and Rome both claim the honor of the invention of recitative music;
Rome for Emilio del Cavaliere, and Tuscany for Jacopo Peri. The sacred drama,
or oratorio, DelV Anima e del Corpo, by Emilio del Cavaliere, and Peri's opera
of Eurydice, were both first printed in 1600. The latter was produced in the
theatre at Florence in that year, on the occasion of the marriage of Mary de'
Medici with Henry IV. of France. Although performed, on so great an event,
" in a most magnificent manner," and in the presence of the Queen, the Grand
Duke, the Cardinal Legate, and innumerable princes and noblemen of Italy and
France, it appears from the Author's preface, that only four musical instruments
were employed, a harpsichord, a large guitar, a large lute, and a large lyre.
The lyre was probably an instrument of the harp description for the music of
Orpheus, intended to imitate the ancient lyre. (Dr. Burney translates " lira
grande," viol da gamba!) These four instruments were, without doubt, to be used
separately for accompanying particular voices (as was the custom in somewhat
later Italian operas), and not to be played in concert. The only instrumental
music in the opera is a short symphony of eight bars for a triflauto, or triple
flute. a The employment of instruments of various sorts in combination seems to
have been little practised in Italy, although at this time each ward of the city of
London, and the suburbs of Finsbury, Southwark, &c., had its band that played
habitually, with various instruments, in six parts. Two years before Peri's
opera was produced, Hentzner wrote of the " suavissima adhibita musica" (the
charming music performed) in the London theatres ; and, to prove the variety of
instruments occasionally employed in English plays, we may quote (for an early
date) Gascoyne's Jocasta, 1566, in which each act is preceded by dumb show,
accompanied by the music of "viols, cythren, bandores [or large lutes], flutes,
cornots, trumpets, drums, pipes, and stillpipes."
I have already alluded to the number of English instrumental performers in
the employ of foreign courts in the reigns of Elizabeth and James L, and may
add that, in the Court-Masques of the latter reign, as many as from 60 to 80
instrumentalists were sometimes engaged. As an instance, which I select because
it has not before been printed, take the following from the list of " Rewards to
the persons employed in the Maske," by Ben Jonson, which was presented at
court at Christmas, 1610-11, the original document being among the Pell Records :
" To 12 Musicions that were Preestes, that songe and played - 24
To 12 other Lutes that suplied and with Flutes 12
To 10 Violencas [Violoncellos] that continually practized to the Queen, 20
To 4 more that were added at the Maske 4
To 15 Musitions that played the pages and fooles - 20
To 13 Hoboyes and Sackbutts 10."
Pr< bably an ancient triple flute was to be held by flutes," but it is in the singular number. He divides the
Tim, whilst the symphony was played behind the scenes symphony of eight bars, of six in a bar, into fifteen.
by thre 2 flutes, as the music is in three parts. Dr. Burney (History, vol. iv., p. 31.)
solves the difficulty by translating un triflauto "three
474 FASHION FOR FOREIGN MUSIC.
There are also rewards " to Mr. Alfonso [Ferabosco], for making the Songes,
20 ; to Mr. [Robert] Johnson, for setting the Songs to the Lutes, 5 ; and
to Mr. Thomas Lupo, for setting the Dances to the Violins, 5." The viol, the
violin players, and other members of the royal band, are not included in the above
list, and therefore probably received only their usual payments in the form of
salary.
The splendid Court-Masques of the reigns of James I. and Charles I. afforded
ample opportunities for the development of the power of Recitative, which gave
variety and novelty to the entertainments. Recitative seems to have been first
composed in England by Nicholas Laniere, an eminent musician, painter, and
engraver, in the service of James I. He was an Italian by birth, but lived and
died in England. There were four of the name in James's band " John,
Nicholas, Jerom, and Clement," of whom one other, at least, was painter as
well as musician. Evelyn says, in his Diary, under the date of Aug. 1, 1652,
" Came old Jerome Lennier, of Greenwich, a man skilled in painting and music,
and another rare musician named Mell" (the violin player mentioned by Anthony
a Wood). " Lennier had been a domestic of Queen Elizabeth, and shewed me
her head, an intaglio in a rare sardonyx, cut by a famous Italian, which he assured
me was exceeding like her." Nicholas Laniere's " Hero's Complaint to Leander,
in Recitative Music," gives a very favorable impression of his ability in that
style of composition. It is printed in the fourth book of Choice Ayres and Songs,
to sing to the Theorbo Lute or Bass Viol (fol., Play ford, 1683).
From the introduction of Recitative began a fashion for Italian vocal music,
which in the latter part of the reign of Charles I. was so predominant, that
scarcely any other was esteemed by the upper classes. They seemed to think that
whatever was Italian must be necessarily good ; and that, if not Italian, it must be
otherwise. This indiscriminate preference is noticed by Henry Lawes in the preface
to his first book of Ayres and Dialogues, published in 1653 : " Wise men have
observed our generation so giddy," says he, " that whatsoever is native, be it never
so excellent, must lose its taste, because themselves have lost theirs. For my part
I profess (and such as know me can bear witness) I desire to render every man
his due, whether strangers or natives .... and, without depressing the honor
of other countries, I may say our own nation hath had, and yet hath, as able
musicians as any in Europe. I confess the Italian language may have some
advantage by being better smooth' d and vowell'd for music, which I found by
many songs which I set to Italian words, and our English seems a little over-
clogged with consonants, but that's much the composer's fault, who, by judicious
setting, and right tuning the words, may make it smooth enough. This present
generation is so sated with what's native, that nothing takes their ear but what's
sung in a language which, commonly, they understand as little as they do the
music. And to make them a little sensible of this ridiculous humour, I took
a table or index of old Italian songs, and this index, which read together made
a strange medley of nonsense, I set to a varied air, and gave out that it came
from Italy, whereby it passed for a rare Italian song. This very song have I here
REIGN OF CHARLES II. 475
printed." Again he says, " There are knowing persons who have been long bred
in those worthily admired parts of Europe, who ascribe more to us than we to
ourselves; and able musicians, returning from travel, do wonder to see us so
thirsty after foreigners. Their manner of composing is sufficiently known to us,
their best compositions being brought over hither by those who are able enough
to choose." Lawes was an excellent musician, and composed the music to Milton's
Comus. He was highly esteemed both by Milton and Waller. As some of his
songs have been recently revived, and sung in public, he is better known to the
present generation than almost any other composer of his day ; and his fame has
been sufficiently vindicated from the very unjust criticism of Dr. Burney.
The fashion for foreign music continued to spread ; and in 1656, Matthew
Lock, in his preface to his Little Consort of three parts, containing Pavans,
Ayres, Corants, and Sarabands, for Viols or Violins, says : " For those mounte-
banks of wit who think it necessary to disparage all they meet with of their own
countrymen, because there have been, and are, some excellent things done by
strangers, I shall make bold to tell them (and I hope my known experience in
this science will inforce them to confess me a competent judge) that I never yet
saw any foreign instrumental composition (a few French Corants excepted) worthy
an Englishman's transcribing." He adds, " I only desire, in the performance of
this Consort, you would do yourselves and me the right to play plain, not tearing
them in pieces with division, an old custom of our country fiddlers, and now,
under the title of a la mode, endeavoured to be introduced." In the same strain,
Christopher Simpson, in his Compendium of Practical Music, says, " You need
not seek outlandish authors, especially for instrumental music ; no nation (in my
opinion) being equal to the English in that way, as well for their excellent as for
their various and numerous consorts of three, four, five, and six parts, made
properly for instruments of all which, as I said, Fancies are the chief."
(3rd edit. 8vo., 1678.) So also Playford, in his Introduction to the Skill of
Music : " But musick in this age, like other arts and sciences, is in low esteem
with the generality of people. Our late and solemn musick, both vocal and in-
strumental, is now jostled out of esteem by the new Corants and Jigs of foreigners,
to the grief of all sober and judicious understanders of that formerly solid and
good musick." (6th edit. 8vo., 1672.) And in his preface to MusicVs Delight
on the Cithren (1666), " It is observed that of late years all solemn and grave
musick is much laid aside, being esteemed too heavy and dull for the light heels
and brains of this nimble and wanton age ; nor is any musick rendered accept-
able, or esteemed by many, but what is presented by foreigners : not a City
Dame, though a tap-wife, but is ambitious to have her daughters taught by
Monsieur La Novo Kickshawibus on the Gittar, which instrument is but a new
old one, used in London in the time of Queen Mary, as appears by a book printed
in English of Instructions and Lessons for the same, about the beginning of
Queen Elizabeth's reign ; being not much different from the Cithren, only that
[the Gittern?] was strung with gut strings, this with wire, which was
accounted the more sprightly and cheerful musick, and was in more esteem, till
of late years, than the Gittar."
476 GUITAR, HARP, ETC.
Roger North says, " It imparts not much to the state of the world, or the
condition of human life, to know the names and styles of those authors of musical
composition whose performances gained to the nation the credit of excelling the
Italians in all but the vocal. Nothing is more a fashion than music, no, not
clothes or language, either of which is made a derision in after times. The grand
custom of all is to affect novelty, and to goe from one thing to another, and
to despise the former. Cannot we put ourselves in loco of former states, and judge
pro tune ? It is a shallow monster that shall hold forth in favour of our fashions
and relishes, and maintain that no age shall come wherein they will not be
despised and derided; and if, on the other side, I may take upon me to be a
fidling prophet, I may with as much reason declare that the time may come when
some of the present celebrated musick will be as much in contempt as John come
kiss me now, now, now, and perhaps with as much reason as any is found for the
contrary at present."
The versatility of the English in the fashion of music, in the reign of
Charles II., was quite as great as their variableness in dress; to ridicule which,
Andrew Borde, a physician in the reign of Henry VIII., in his Bolce of the
Introduction of Knowledge, describing, and giving engravings of, the costume of
other countries, paints the Englishman naked, with a pair of shears in his
hand, and with the following lines :
" I am an Englyshman, and naked I stand here,
Musyng in my mynd what rayment I shall were ;
For now I wyll were this, and now I wyll were that,
Now I wyll were I cannot tel what.
All new fashyons be plesaunt to me,
I wyll have them, whether I thryve or thee :
Now I am a frysker, all men doth on me looke,
What should I do but set Cocke on the Hoope ?
What do I care yf all the worlde me fayle ?
I will get a garment shal reche to my tayle.
Then I am a minion, for I were the new gyse,
The yere after this I trust to be wyse," &c.
So in Charles the Second's reign it was first French music, then Italian music ;
first one instrument, and then another ; just as some new performer appeared,
who pleased the King.
The Guitar was brought into fashion in 1662, by Francisco Corbeta, who
" had a genius for music," says Count Grammont, " and was the only man who
could make anything of it The king's relish for his compositions had
brought the instrument so much into vogue, that every person played upon it,
well or ill ; and you were as sure to see a Guitar on a lady's toilette, as rouge or
patches." (Memoirs, p. 174, 8vo., 1846.) Evelyn also mentions him as playing
" with extraordinary skill."
M. Jorevin de Rocheford, who printed his travels in England at Paris in 1672,
says, " the Harp was then the most esteemed of musical instruments by the
English." He made this observation at Worcester, where an English gentleman,
REIGN OF CHARLES II. 477
who had kindly acted as interpreter for him, supped with him at the inn, and
" sent for a band of music, consisting of all sorts of instruments." M. Jorevin
also mentions going to one of the college chapels in Cambridge, where the whole
of divine service was sung every day to music, and thinks he " there counted
more than fifty musicians, as many clerks, and the like number of ministers."
If so, tempora vere mutantur.
Charles II. advanced the salaries of the thirty-two Gentlemen of the Chapel
Royal to 70/. a year each ; but he sometimes left them, like his private musicians
ind the public servants, from two to five years without their money. Pepys
tells us in December, 1656, that " many of the musique are ready to starve,
uhey being five years behind hand with their wages ; " and adds that " Evens, the
man upon the harp, having not his equal in the world, did the other day die from
mere want, and was fain to be buried from the alms of the parish, and carried to
his grave in the dark at night without one link, but that Mr. Kingston (the
organist) met the funeral by chance, and did give 12J. to buy two or three links."
Evelyn speaks in strong terms of admiration of the harp, when well-played.
In his Diary (January 20, 1653-4) he says, " Came to see me my old acquaint-
ance and the most incomparable player on the Irish harp, Mr. Clarke, after his
travels. He was an excellent musician, a discreet gentleman (born in Devonshire,
as I remember). Such music before or since did I never hear, that instrument
being neglected for its extraordinary difficulty ; but in my judgment, far superior
to the lute itself, or whatever speaks with strings." Again, on November 17,
1668, " I heard Sir Edward Sutton play excellently on the Irish harp ; he
performs genteely, but not approaching my worthy friend, Mr. Clark, a gentle-
man of Northumberland, who makes it execute lute, viol, and all the harmony
sin instrument is capable of; pity it is that it is not more in use ; but, indeed, to
play well, takes up the whole man, as Mr. Clark has assured me, who though a
gentleman of quality and parts, was yet brought up to that instrument from five
years old, as I remember he told me."
I suppose the harp above-mentioned to be that with a double row of strings,
>vhich is described by Galilei, in his Dialogo delta Musica, 1581, as the Irish
harp. It could not otherwise be so difficult an instrument. In Galilei's time it
had from fifty-four to sixty strings, generally of metal, and was played upon by
the nails, as the Spaniards now do on the guitar. There were, at the same time,
double harps strung with gut ; for the use of the intestines of animals as strings
for musical instruments, was known and practised in very early times even by
the ancient Greeks.
In Wales, according to Edward Jones, harps with triple rows of strings were
in use in the fifteenth century. (Welsh Bards, i. 104.) Michael Drayton
speaks of a peculiar mode of stringing the ancient British harp, in the following
passage from his Polyolbion :
" Th' old British bards, upon their harps, To stir their youth to warlike rage,
For falling flats and rising sharps Or their wild fury to assuage,
That curiously were strung ; In their loose numbers sung."
478 ORIGIN OP ENGLISH OPERA.
Upon either the double or triple harp, music in a variety of keys might be per-
formed ; but that with a single row of strings could not have more than one or two
accidentals in the octave. The Hon. Roger North says, " The common harp, by
the use of gut strings, hath received incomparable improvement, but cannot be a
consort instrument, because it cannot follow organs and violls in the frequent
change of keys ; and the wind music, which by all stress of invention hath
been brought into ordinary consort measures, yet more or less labours under
the same infirmity, especially the chief of them, which is the trumpet.'^ Ambrose
Philips, in his fifth Pastoral, has beautifully described the effects which the harp
is peculiarly capable of producing, where he says
" His fingers, restless, traverse to and fro, While melting airs arise at their command ;
As in pursuit of harmony they go ; And now, laborious, with a weighty hand,
Now lightly skimming o'er the strings He sinks into the chords with solemn pace,
they pass, . [grass, And gives the swelling tones a manly
Like wings that gently brush the plying grace."
It may now be desirable to give a few particulars of the establishment of
operas with recitative in this country, and of the origin of public concerts, but
to do so, it will be necessary to revert to the time of the Commonwealth.
The first step towards the revival of dramatic music during the usurpation, was
the performance of Shirley's masque, entitled Cupid and Death. It was presented
(according to the title-page of the printed copy) " before his Excellence the
Ambassadour of Portugal, upon the 26th of March, 1653 ;" and the music, of
which there are two manuscript copies in the library of the British Museum, was
composed by Christopher Gibbons and Matthew Lock. One of those copies is in
the handwriting of Matthew Lock. (See Addit. MSS., No. 17,799.)
In 1656, Sir William Davenant obtained permission to open a theatre for the
performance of operas, in a large room " at the back of Rutland House, in the
upper end of Aldersgate St." He commenced with " An Entertainment in
Declamation and Music, after the manner of the Ancients;" the vocal and
instrumental music to which was composed by Dr. Charles Coleman, Captain
Henry Cook, Mr. Henry Lawes and Mr. George Hudson. In the same year he
produced the first opera, "The Siege of Rhodes, made a representation by the Art
of Prospective in Scenes, and the Story sung in Recitative Musick." From
his address to the reader, we learn that there were five changes of scenes,
"according to the ancient dramatic distinctions made for time;" but the
size of the room did not permit them to be more than eleven feet in height and
about fifteen in depth, including the places of passage reserved for the music.
There were seven performers; the part of Solyman being taken by Captain
Henry Cook, and that of lanthe by Mrs. Coleman, wife to Mr. Henry Coleman,
who was, therefore, the first female actress on the English stage. The remaining
five parts were doubled, sometimes represented by one person, and sometimes by
the other. They were, Villerius, by Mr. Gregory Thorndell and Mr. Dubartus
Hunt ; Alphonso, by Mr. Edward Coleman and Mr. Roger Hill ; the Admiral, by
Mr. Matthew Lock and Mr. Peter Rymon ; Pirrhus, by Mr. John Harding and
REIGN OF CHARLES II. 479
Mr. Alphonso March ; and Mustapha, by Mr. Thomas Blagrave and Mr. Henry
Purcell. The vocal music of the first and fifth " entries," or acts, was composed
]>y Henry Lawes ; of the second and third by Captain Henry Cook (who was
r.fterwards Master of the Children of the Chapels Royal) ; and the fourth by the
celebrated Matthew Lock. The instrumental music was composed by Dr. Charles
Coleman and George Hudson, and performed by Messrs. William Webb,
Christopher Gibbons, Humphrey Madge, Thomas Baltzar, " a German, "
Thomas Baites, and John Banister. The scenery was designed and " ordered"
by Mr. John Web. Davenant assigns as a reason for his "numbers being so often
diversified," that " frequent alterations of measure are necessary to recitative
music." I have given rather minute details of the manner in which this opera
was performed, because it is not mentioned by Sir John Hawkins, and Dr. Burney
lad not examined the edition of 1656, and his account and all his deductions
are consequently erroneous. 11 (History, iv. 182.)
In 1669, Louis XIV. granted, by letters patent, to the Sieur Perrin " une
permission d'etablir en notre bonne Ville de Paris, et autres de notre Royaume,
des Academies de Musique pour chanter en public de pieces de Theatre, comme
il se pratique en Italic, en Allemagne, et en Angleterre." According to
Menestrier, in his Des Representations en Musique Anciennes et Modernes (Paris,
1681), after Perrin had enjoyed this patent for a few years, it was revoked and
given to Lully. From this it is evident that opera was established in England
about thirteen years before France, and that Matthew Lock was, by about twenty
years, an earlier composer of dramatic music than Lully.
We learn from Ogilby's " Relation of His Majesty's entertainment passing
through the city of London to his Coronation," April 22nd, 1661, that Lock
composed the whole of the music for the public entry of Charles II. , and had
received the appointment of " Composer in Ordinary" to the King. His
" Psyche," b seems to have been the first opera printed in England (4to., 1675),
and it is mixed with " interlocutions (or dialogue), as more proper to our Genius"
than the Italian plan of being entirely in recitative. To that system we have
since adhered almost without exception.
Our public concerts originated from the music performed at taverns. When the
civil war commenced, and " the whole of the masters of music in London were
turned adrift, some went into the army, others dispersed in the country and made
music for the consolation of the Cavalier gentlemen," while many of the musicians
of the theatres were driven to earn a subsistence by frequenting taverns and in-
viting the guests to hear them perform. They who went into the country " gave
great occasion," says Roger North, " to divers [county] families to entertain the
Burney conies to a conclusion directly opposed to was printed in score with Psyche. His music to Macbeth
th : fact, viz. : that " it seems as if this drama was no was not printed during his lifetime, and we have no copy
m< <re like an Italian opera than the Masques which long extant of so early a date. A tune called "Macbeth, a Jigg,"
preceded it." History, vol. 4, p. 182. A copy in the is in Mustek's Delight on the Cithr en, 1666, and the same
British Museum wants the last leaf, and that leaf con- is in The Pleasant Companion to the Flagelet with the
tains many of the above particulars. I am indebted to initials of M[atthew] L'ock] against it Lock is said to
Dr. Rimbau'.t for the loan of a perfect copy. have composed the music to Macbeth in 1670. This jig
Lock's instrumental music to Shakespeare's Tempest is of four years earlier date.
480 FIRST PUBLIC CONCERTS.
skill and practice of music, and to encourage the masters, to the great increase of
composition." As an instance, he says, that Mr. John Jenkins, one of the
court musicians of Charles I., and an esteemed composer of instrumental music
in his day, had written so much concerted music at the houses of different gentle-
men, to suit the capabilities of the various performers, that there were " horse-
loads " of his works dispersed about. " A Spanish Don having sent some papers to
Sir Peter Lely , containing one part of a concert of four parts, of a sprightly moving
kind, such as were called Fancies, desiring that he would procure and send him
the other parts, costa che costa" North shewed the papers to Jenkins, "who
knew the concert to be his, but when or where made he knew not. His com-
positions of that kind were so numerous, that he himself outlived the knowledge
of them."
The number of superior musicians thus added to those who habitually per-
formed at taverns, rendered them places of great resort, and brought a rich
harvest to the tavern-keepers. After the theatres were closed, taverns were the
only public places in which music was to be heard. However, in 1656-7,
Cromwell's third Parliament passed " an Act against vagrants and wandering
idle dissolute persons, in which it was ordained that, " if any person or persons,
commonly called fiddlers or minstrels, shall at any time after the 1st of July be
taken playing, fiddling, and making music, in any inn, alehouse, or tavern, or
shall be taken proffering themselves, or desiring, or intreating any person or
persons to hear them play or make music in any of the places aforesaid," they
shall be adjudged rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars, and be proceeded
against and punished accordingly. This checked instrumental music at the
time, and the visitors being driven to amuse themselves, indulged the more
in vocal, by joining together in singing part-songs, catches, and canons.
As gentlemen had been taught to sing at sight, as a part of their education,
there was rarely a difficulty in finding the requisite number of voices. Pepys
mentions going to a coffee-house with Matthew Lock and Mr. Purcell (Henry
PurcelPs father), where, with other visitors, in a room next the water, they had
a variety of " brave Italian and Spanish songs, and a canon for eight voices which
Mr. Lock had lately made on these words, "Domine, salvum fac Regem."
This was while General Monk was in London, and before he had declared for the
King. It was therefore a bold measure to sing such a canon at the time, and they
must have been well assured that there were none but Cavaliers in the room.
After the Restoration, according to Roger North, the first place of entertain-
ment where music was regularly performed was " in a lane behind Paul's, where
there was a chamber organ that one Phillips played upon, and some shopkeepers
and foremen came weekly to sing in concert, and to hear and enjoy ale and
tobacco [as they do now in Germany], And after some time the audience grew
strong, and one Ben Wallington got the reputation of a notable base voice, who
also set up for a composer, and hath some songs in print, but of a very low ex-
cellence." He adds, that "their music was chiefly out of Playford's catch-
book." We know that in 1664 there was a " Musick-house at the Mitre near
REIGN OP CHARLES II. 481
the west end of St. Paul's Church," (where " Robert Hubert, alias Forges, Gent.,"
exhibited his " natural rarities,") and this was probably the original spot ; but in
Playford's Catch that catch can, or The Musical Companion, 1667, Benjamin
"W allington, citizen, is also mentioned as one of the " endeared friends of the late
Musick Society and Meeting in the Old-Jury, London." North says, "these
meetings shewed an inclination in the citizens to follow music ; and the same was
confirmed by many little entertainments the masters voluntarily made for their
scholars, for, being known, they were always crowded."
" The next essay was of the elder Banister, who had a good theatrical vein,
and in composition had a lively style peculiar to himself. He procured a large
room in Whitefriars, near the Temple back gate, and made a large raised box for
the musicians, whose modesty required curtains. The room was surrounded with
seats and small tables, alehouse fashion. One shilling was the price, and call for
what you pleased. There was very good music, for Banister found means to
procure the best hands in town, and some voices to come and perform there, and
there wanted no variety of humour, for Banister himself, among other things,
did wonders upon a flageolet, to a thorough-base, and the several masters had
their solos."
There was also " a society of gentlemen of good esteem," who used to meet
weekly for the practice of instrumental music in concert, at a tavern in Fleet
Street, " but the taverner pretending to make formal seats and to take money,"
the society was disbanded. However, the masters of music finding that money
was to be got in this way, determined to take the business into their own hands,
and about the year 1680, a concert room was built and furnished for public
concerts in Villiers Street, York Buildings. This was the first public concert
room* independent of ale and tobacco. It was called "The Musick Meeting,"
and " all the quality and beau monde repaired to it ; there was nothing of music
valued in town, but was to be heard there."
Banister's concerts continued till his death in 1678, and in that year the club
or private concerts established by John Britton, " the musical small-coalman," in
Clerkenwell, had its beginning, and continued till 1714. The concert room in
York Buildings was in use till the middle of the last century, and was pulled
down about the year 1768.
Our musical festivals originated in the celebrations of St. Cecilia's Day ; and
the first celebration of which we have any record, occurred in the year 1683.
The reader will find full information on this subject in the Account of the musical
ce'ebrations of St. Cecilia's day, recently published by Mr. W. H. Husk, librarian
to the Sacred Harmonic Society.
As Roger North says that " the tradesmen and foremen " sang chiefly out of
Playford's Catch-book (which consists of rounds, canons, catches, and other
part-music), a few words on the subject of catches may not be out of place.
Many quotations have already been adduced about smiths, tinkers, pedlars,
I say "public concert room," because old English concert or music room,
mansions of the sixteenth century had generally each a
482 CATCHES AND OTHER PART-MUSIC.
watchmen, and others of the same class, singing catches, rounds, and roundelays,
in the sixteenth century (pp. 108 to 110), but the custom may be traced to a
more remote period.
In 1453, Sir John Norman, being the first Lord Mayor of London who " brake
that auncient and olde continued custome of riding with greate pompe unto
Westminster, to take his charge," choosing rather to be rowed thither by water,
" the watermen made of him a roundell or song, to his great praise, the which
began, Rowe the bote, Norman,
Rowe to thy Lemnian."
For this we have the authority of a contemporary, Robert Fabyan, who was
Sheriff of London in 1493-4. But the very " roundel " seems to have been in
Playford's possession in 1658, when he printed an enlarged edition of Hilton's
Catch that catch can, because " Row the boat, Norman," is one of the rounds in
the index to that collection. It was omitted in the body of the work, and
another substituted (if I may judge by the only two copies I have seen) ; but, in
1672, Playford printed "Row the boat, Whittington" in a collection of a similar
nature, entitled The Musical Companion. Sir Richard Whittington was Lord
Mayor of London long before Sir John Norman, and I have little doubt of the
name having been altered because Whittington was then the popular Lord Mayor
of history, and the story of his cat universally known. There were many ballads
about him, like " Sir Richard Whifetington's Advancement," &c. ; and one of the
tradesmen's tokens in the Beaufoy Collection, of the year 1657, is of " J. M. M.,
at Whittington's Cat " in Long Lane. Peter Short, a printseller, who died of
the plague in 1665, having obtained an old engraved plate of Sir Richard, with
his "right hand resting on a skull, transformed the skull into a cat, to make the
print accord with the popular tradition.
This round seems to have been intended to imitate the merry ringing of the
church bells on Lord Mayor's day ; it is of the simplest construction, and of but
six bars. As a musical curiosity, it is subjoined,
In three parts.
rTTTTTJ^^^^^^^^
Row the boat, Whittington, thou wor-thy ci - ti-zen, Lord Mayor of London.
[Row the boat, Norman, row, row to thy le- man, thou Lord May or of London.]
Let the first voice begin, and sing it through several times, not stopping at the
end but recommencing immediately. The second to do exactly the same, but to
commence after the first has sung two bars ; and the third in like manner after
the second. If sung merrily with three equal voices (or more to each part), it
will have an agreeable effect, like the following two bars constantly recurring,
but with an interchange of voices :
v \T I I
These popular rounds, catches, and canons, seem to have been first collected for
REIGN OF CHARLES II. 483
publication by Ravenscroft, in the reign of James I. In 1609 the first was
issued under the title of "Pammelia: Musick's Miscellanie; or mixed varietie
of pleasant Roundelayes and delightfull Catches of 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 parts
in one: none so ordinarie as musicall; none so musicall as not to all very
pleasing and acceptable." That many of these were "ordinary" catches and
rounds is clearly proved by the words. We find among them, " New oysters, new
Waylfleet oysters ; " "A miller, a miller, a miller would I be ; " " Jolly Shep-
herd; " " Joan, come kiss me now; " " Dame, lend me a loaf;" " The white hen
she cackles ; " " Banbury Ale ; " " There lies a pudding in the fire ; " " Trole, trole
tho bowl ; " and others of the same description. There are a hundred in the
collection, and among them many of great excellence and of very early date.
As a specimen of the words, I give " Hey, jolly Jenkin," the catch which
Samuel Harsnet mentioned in 1604, as one which tinkers sang " as they sat by
the fire with a pot of good ale between their legs," a not unusual accompaniment
to the singing. It is the seventh in the collection.
" Now God be with old Simeon, To whom drink ye ?'
For he made cans for many a one, ' Sir knave to you ;
And a good old man was he ; Then, hey, jolly Jenkin,
And Jenkin was his journeyman, I spy a knave drinking,
And he could tipple of every can, Come, pass this can to me.' "
And this he said to me :
Another copy of the above will be found in a manuscript in the library of
Trin. Coll., Dublin (F. 5. 13, fol. 40).
In the same year (1609), Ravenscroft printed " Deuteromelia ; or the second
part of Musick's Melodie, or melodious musicke of pleasant Roundelaies, K[ing]
H[onry's] Mirth or Freemen's Songs, and such delightfull Catches." To this
he affixes the motto, " Qui canere potest canat Catch that catch can." It
contains fourteen Freemen's Songs and seventeen Rounds or Catches. His third
Collection was " Melismata : Musical Phansies fitting the Court, Citie, and
Countrey humours," consisting of " Court Varieties," " Gitie Rounds, " Citie
Conceits," " Country Rounds," and " Country Pastimes." 4to., 1611.
After an interval of forty years, appeared John Play ford's first publication
containing rounds and catches, under the title of " Musick and Mirth, presented
in a choice collection of Rounds and Catches for three voices" (1651). This is
now a scarce book, and perhaps the only copy remaining is in the Douce Collection
at Oxford. In 1652, he printed " Catch that catch can, or a choice collection of
Catches, Rounds, and Canons for 3 or 4 voices : collected and published by John
Hilton, Batch, in Musick;" and in the same year appeared "A Banquet of
Musick, set forth in three several varieties of musick: first, Lessons for the Lyra
Violl ; the second, Ayres and Jiggs for the Violin ; the third, Rounds and
Catches : all which are fitted to the capacity of young practitioners in Music."
The last is also a scarce work, the only known copy being in the Douce Collection.
Both Ravenscroft and Hilton give punning prefaces to their books. The latter
speaks of his as the times " when catches and catchers were never so much in
2i
484 CATCHES, SONGS, AND BALLADS.
request." His collection became very popular, and a second edition was printed
in 1658. In 1667, Playford first published his Musical Companion, containing
143 catches and rounds, besides glees, ayres, part-songs, &c., in all 218 com-
positions. To this additions were constantly made, and in 1685 he printed a
second part, the popularity of which carried through ten editions between that
year and 1730. The fourth edition, printed in 1701, contains fifty- three catches
composed by Henry Purcell, and eleven by Dr. Blow.*
In and after the reign of Charles II., the best composers did not disdain to
write catches ; but if the great masters of Elizabeth's reign wrote any, they did
not care to print them, for although there are numberless canons of that period
extant, and in every form of that species of composition, I do not recollect to have
seen a single catch of their production. 1 *
Publication was then attended with little pecuniary advantage to authors.
Not a fiftieth part of the music we know to have been composed by celebrated
musicians was printed ; and when an author was induced to publish his works,
he commonly assigned such reasons as " the solicitation of numerous friends," or
" the many incorrect copies " that were in circulation. The sum to be received
from a publisher was evidently small in proportion to what might be derived, in
the form of presents for copies, so long as the work remained in manuscript ; and
the transcription of music required much less time than an ordinary book. When
Playford and Carr published The Theater of Music, in 1685, in a preface to that
collection they solicited the composers whose works they were printing to leave
copies of all their new songs, " under their own hands," either at the shop of the
one or of the other ; promising, in return, not to pay the authors, but " faith-
fully to print from such copies; whereby they may be assured to have them
perfect and exact." Composers were expected, " in justice to themselves, easily
to grant " this favour, and so to " prevent such as daily abuse them by publishing
their songs lame and imperfect, and singing them about the streets like ordinary
ballads." It was a great indignity to an author to rank his works with ballad-
tunes, and Playford reproves a pupil of Mr. Birkenshaw, as " an ignorant pre-
tender to musick," for having asserted that there were only three good songs in
his third book of Choice Ayres, and that " the rest were worse than common
ballads sung about the streets by footboys and linkboys."
Old Thomas Mace was perhaps the only musician of the time who had a word
a See Notes on the Hon. Roger North's Memoires of you please, so that they may aptly make one continued
Musick, by Edward F. Rimbault. tune, you have finished a Catch." He prints an example
b The method of making rounds or catches Is so simple, in score, and then the same written out with the mark of
that I shall here transcribe Christopher Simpson's direc- the period where another voice is to follow. That is
tions for composing them. These will be found at the end equally exemplified in " Row the boat, Whittington "
of his Compendium or Introduction to Practical Music. (ante p. 482). The two bars are the score compressed ;
After teaching all the " Contrivances of Canon," he says, the six bars are the three parts written out in the order
" I must not omit another sort of Canon, in more request they are to be sung. I have already said that the only
and common use, though of less dignity, than all those difference between a catch and a round is that the former
which we have mentioned ; and that is a Catch or Round: has some catch, or cross-reading in the words, some
some call it a Canon in Unison ; or a Canon consisting of " latent meaning or humour, produced by the manner in
Periods. The contrivance thereof is not intricate ; for if which the composer has arranged the words for singing,
you compose any short strain in three or four parts, setting which would not appear on perusing them." See Note at
them all within the ordinary compass of the voice; and p. 108.
then place one part at the end of another, in what order
KEIGN OF CHARLES II. 485
to say in favour of ballad-tunes ; for learned counterpoint and skilful harmony
were far more highly valued by professed musicians than simple melodies. In
his quaint and charming book, called MusicK s Monument (1676), after describing
pr3ludes, fancies, pavans (" very grave and sober ; full of art and profundity ;
but seldom used in these light days"), galliards, corantos, sarabands, jigs, &c.,
Mace speaks of " common tunes," which " are to be known by the boys and
common people singing them in the streets ;" and says, that " among them are
many very excellent and well-contrived;" that they have "neat and spruce
ayre," and " in either sort of time," common or triple.
He tells us that the theorbo, a large lute, of which an engraving is given, is
" no other than that which we called the old English lute" and that " in despite
of fickleness and novelty, it was still made use of in the best performances of
music, viz., in vocal." For instrumental music, a lute of smaller size was
used, because the neck of the theorbo was so long that the strings could not
be drawn up to a sufficiently high pitch, and it could only be managed by tuning
one string to the octave. " Know," says he, " that an old lute is better than a
new one ;" and " you shall do well, ever when you lay it by in the day-time, to
put it into a bed that is constantly used, between the rug and the blanket, but
never between the sheets, because they may be moist. This is the most absolute
and best plan to keep it always. There are many great commodities in so doing ;
it will save your strings from breaking ; it will keep your lute in good order, so
that you shall have but small trouble in tuning it ; it will sound more brisk and
lively, and give you pleasure in very handling of it ; if you have any occasion
extraordinary to set your lute at a higher pitch, you may do it safely, which
otherwise you cannot so well do, without danger to your instrument and strings ;
it will be a great safety to your instrument, in keeping it from decay ; it will
prevent much trouble in keeping the bars from flying loose, and the belly from
sinking : and these six conveniences, considered all together, must needs create a
seventh, which is, that lute-playing must certainly be very much facilitated, and
mado more delightful thereby. Only no person must be so inconsiderate as to
tumble down upon the bed whilst the lute is there, for I have known several good
lutes spoilt with stfch a trick. . . . Take notice that you strike not your strings
with your nails, as some do, who maintain it the best way of playing, but I do
not, and for this reason : because the nail cannot draw so sweet a sound as the
nibble end of the flesh can do. I confess, in a concert, it might do well enough,
where the mellowness (which is the most excellent satisfaction from a lute) is lost
in the crowd ; but alone, I could never receive so good content from the nail as
from the flesh."
Mace had seen two old lutes, " pitiful, battered, cracked things," which were
value 1 at 100. a piece. Charles II. had paid that sum for the one, and the other
was the property of Mr. Edward Jones, who being minded to dispose of it, made
a bargain with a merchant that desired to have it with him in his travels, that,
on his return, he should either pay Mr. Jones 100/. as the price, or 20L " for
his experience and use of it" during the voyage. Yet lutes of three or four
pounds a-piece were " more illustrious and taking to a common eye."
486 LUTES, VIOLS, VIRGINALS, ETC.
" Of viols," says Mace, " there are no better in the world than those of Aldred,
Jay, and Smith, yet the highest in esteem are Bolles and Ross ; one bass of Bolles
I have known valued at 100Z. These were old ; but we have now very excellent
good workmen, who no doubt can work as well as those, if they be so well paid
for their work as they were ; yet we chiefly value old instruments before new ;
for, by experience, they are found to be far the best."
A hundred pounds for a lute, and the same for a viol, were quite as large sums,
in relation to the comparative value of money, as are now occasionally paid for
Cremona violins of the best makers of the sixteenth century ; but the expenditure
upon music generally was certainly greater, in proportion to our wealth, in the
seventeenth than in the present century. Evelyn tells us that when Sir Samuel
Morland was blind, he "buried 200. worth of music-books six feet under ground ;
being, as he said, love-songs and vanity." This was a considerable sum for
an amateur to spend in books of vocal music only ; and as he continued to play
" psalms and religious hymns on the theorbo," it may be presumed that what
was interred formed but a portion of his vocal library.
During the great fire of London in 1666, Pepys, who was an eye-witness, tells
us that, the river Thames being full of lighters and boats taking in goods, he
" observed that hardly one lighter or boat in three, that had the goods of a house,
but there was a pair of virginals in it." As these were principally for the use
of the fair sex, the cultivation of music could not have declined among them to
any great extent, in spite of the long reign and depressing influence of puritanism ;
or else the revival must have been singularly rapid. The virginals, spinet, and
harpsichord (or harpsichow, as it was about this time more generally called) , were
the precursors of the pianoforte ; and, although differing from one another in
shape, and somewhat in interior mechanism, were essentially the same instru-
ment. Two "pairs of virginals," manufactured in London, are now in the
possession of Mr. T. Mackinlay ; the one pair by John Loosemore (the builder of
the organ of Exeter Cathedral), bearing the date of 1655, and the second by
Adam Leversidge, made in the year of the fire. In shape they resemble
" square" pianofortes ; but the lids, instead of being flat, are elevated in the
centre, and are in three long pieces. The compass of the second is from A to F,
rather less than five octaves. The interiors of the lids are decorated by
paintings.
To connect the history of the cultivation of music among ladies, from the reign
of Elizabeth to that of Charles, it may suffice to quote from two authors ; and,
as Dr. Nott truly says, "From old plays are chiefly to be collected the manners
of private life in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries," the first shall be a
dramatist. Middleton's play, A Chaste Maid, 1630, opens with this question,
addressed by the goldsmith's wife to her daughter : " Moll, have you played over
all your old lessons o'the virginals? " In his Michaelmas Term, 1607, Quomodo,
the hosier, desires his daughter to leave the shop, and to " get up to her vir-
ginals." In his Roaring Cf-irl, 1611, Sir Alexander asks Moll, "You can play
REIGN OF CHARLES II. 487
any lesson ? " and is answered, " At first sight, Sir." In his Women, beware
Women " I've brought her up to music, dancing, and what not,
That may commend her sex, and stir her a husband."
Tc the same purport writes Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy. Under the
he id of " Love Melancholy Artificial Allurements," he says, " A thing never-
theless frequently used, and part of a gentlewoman's bringing up, is to sing,
dance, play on the lute or some such instrument, before she can say her Pater
no4er or ten commandments : 'tis the next way their parents think to get them
husbands, they are compelled to learn." But when they were married, " We
sec this daily verified in our young women and wives, they that being maids took
so much pains to sing, play, and dance, with such cost and charge to their
parents to get these graceful qualities, now, being married, will scarce touch an
instrument, they care not for it."
Of the opposite sex Burton says, " Amongst other good qualities an amorous
fellow is endowed with, he must learn, to sing and dance, play upon some instru-
ment or other, as without doubt he will, if he be truly touched with the loadstone
of love : for, as Erasmus hath it, Musicam docet amor, et poesin, love will make
them musicians, and to compose ditties, madrigals, elegies, love-sonnets, and sing
them to several pretty tunes, to get all good qualities may be had." He also tells
us that many silly gentlewomen are won by " gulls and swaggering companions
that have nothing in them but a few players' ends and compliments ; that dance,
siny old ballet tunes, and wear their clothes in fashion with a good grace ; a sweet
fim; gentleman ! a proper man ! who could not love him ? "
To return to Charles the Second's reign, I may again quote Pepys, who not
only sang at sight, but also played upon the lute, the viol, the violin, and the
flageolet ; learnt to compose music ; bad an organ and pair of virginals or harp-
sichord in his house, and had a thoroughly musical household. And yet, when a
young man, was so vehement a roundhead as to say on the day Charles I. was
executed, that, were he to preach upon him, his text should be " The memory of
the wicked shall rot." His Diary abounds with amusing passages about music,
as a few brief extracts will prove. And, firstly, as to himself.
Nov. 21, 1660. " At night to my viallin, in my dining roome, and afterwards
to my lute there, and I took much pleasure to have the neighbours come forth
into the yard to hear me." Dec. 3. " Rose by candle and spent my morning in
fiddling till time to go to the office." 28th. " Staid within all the afternoon
and evening at my lute with great pleasure." In the cellars at Audley End,
" played on my flageolette, there being an excellent echo; " and again, "I took
my flageolette and played upon the leads in my garden, when Sir W. Pen came,
and there we stayed talking and singing, and drinking great draughts of claret."
On Sundays we find him joining with others to sing Ravenscroft's or Lawes'
Psalms, or else taking part in cathedral service or an anthem. After morning
pravers, " To Gray's Inn Walk, all alone, and with great pleasure seeing all the
fine ladies walk there. Myself humming to myself the trillo, which now-a-days
is my constant practice since I begun to learn to sing, and find by use that it do
488 MUSIC IN PRIVATE LIFE.
come upon me." Once he says, " Lord's day . . . composing some ayres. God
forgive me ! "
According to the custom of those days, Pepys frequently dined at taverns or
ordinaries, generally choosing those where the best musicians were to be heard.
He mentions the Dolphin Tavern as having " an excellent company of fiddlers,"
and his being there, on more than one occasion, " exceeding merry till late."
But, a year or two after, being invited to dine there by Mr. Foly, and an excel-
lent dinner provided, he tells us, " but I expected musique, the missing of which
spoiled my dinner."
Licenses were not then required for the performance of music at taverns, as
now ; and Killigrew says that no ordinary fiddlers of any country were so well
paid as our own. According to Heylin, in his Voyage of France, 1679, the
custom, at Tours, was for each man at table to pay the fiddlers a sou ; " they
expect no more, and will take no less." In English country towns a groat for
" a fit of mirth " had long been the remuneration of the minstrel ; and (accord-
ing to a ballad of this time) each villager, male or female, gave two-pence for a
dance on the green ; but Pepys speaks of paying four shillings on one occasion
at the Dolphin, and 37. for four musicians, " the Duke of Buckingham's music,
the best in town," for a dance at his own house. Their instruments were two
violins, a base, and a theorbo.
Under the date of November 16, 1667, Pepys says, " To White Hall, and
there got into the theatre-room, and there heard both the vocall and instrumentall
musick ; where the little fellow (Pelham Humphrey, the composer) stood keeping
time." Conductors to bands are therefore of no modern introduction ; and he
even mentions a case in which that office was held by a woman. On the 6th of
June, 1661, "Lieutenant Lambert and I went down by water to Greenwich,
and eat and drank and heard musique at the Globe, and saw the simple motion
that is there of a woman with a rod in her hand keeping time to the musique
while it plays, which is simple, methinks"
In one instance he dines at a club, where they have three voices to sing catches.
This is probably one of the earliest notices of clubs in England.
His position as a clerk at the Admiralty threw him much into the society of
naval officers, and his own taste into that of antiquaries. Meeting Ashmole in the
morning at the house of Lilly, the astrologer, they stay and sing duets and trios
in Lilly's study. We are told that Evelyn and all his family were lovers of music,
and well skilled in the art. Evelyn also mentions his daughter Mary as having
" substantial and practical knowledge in ornamental arts of education, especially
music, both vocal and instrumental."
We find the tedium of naval life to have been often relieved by music ; that
one captain kept a harper ; another was " a perfect good musician ; " a third
" a merry man that sang a pleasant song pleasantly ; " that one lieutenant played
the cittern, and another, who was " in a mighty vein of singing," had " a very
good ear and strong voice, but no manner of skill." Sets of viols or violins were
sometimes kept on board, because Pepys tells us, while the Nazeby was lying off
REIGN OF CHARLES II. 489
Deal, Mr. North, son of Sir Dudley North, came on board, and " did play his
part exceeding well at first sight."
Pepys' household included a maid to wait upon his wife, and a boy to attend
upon him. In the course of the Diary, which extends over about nine years and
a half, four maids are mentioned, and all possessed of some skill in music. Of the
first he says (Nov. 17, 1662), " After dinner, talking with my wife, and making
Mrs. Gosnell sing. . . I am mightily pleased with her humour and singing."
And again, Dec. 5, " she sings exceeding well." Within a few months, Gosnell
wan succeeded by Mary Ashwell, who had been brought up at Chelsea school, and
he tells us in March, " I heard Ashwell play first upon the harpsichon, and I find
she do play pretty well. Then home by coach, buying at the Temple the printed
virginall book for her." Of the third, Mary Mercer, " a pretty, modest, quiet
maid," he says, on Sep. 9, 1664, " After dinner, my wife and Mercer, Tom (the
boy) and I, sat till eleven at night, singing and fiddling, and a great joy it is to
see me master of so much pleasure in my house. The girle (Mercer) plays
pretty well upon the harpsichon, but only ordinary tunes, but hath a good hand :
sings a little, but hath a good voyce and eare. My boy, a brave boy, sings
finely, and is the most pleasant boy at present, while his ignorant boy's tricks
last, that ever I saw." Again, May 5, 1666, u It being a very fine moonshine,
my wife and Mercer came into the garden, and my business being done, we sang
till about twelve at night, with mighty pleasure to ourselves and neighbours by
their casements opening."
After some time, Mercer went out to see her mother, and Mrs. Pepys, finding
her absent without having asked permission, followed her to the house and beat
her in her mother's presence. It was the custom of ladies to beat their servants
in those days. The mother having urged that her daughter was " not a common
prentice girl," Mrs. Pepys construed it into a question of her right to inflict
corporeal chastisement, and therefore, when Mary Mercer returned home, she was
dismissed.
In October, 1666, says Pepys, " My wife came home, and hath brought her
new girle I have helped her to, of Mr. Falconbridge's. She is wretched poor and
but ordinary favoured, and we fain to lay out seven or eight pounds' worth of
clothes upon her back, which, methinks, do go against my heart: and do not
think I can ever esteem her as I could have done another, that had come fine and
handsome ; and which is more, her voice, for want of use, is so furred that it
do not at present please me; but her manner of singing is such that I shall,
I think, take great pleasure in it."
Within a short time, Mercer was taken back, and we hear constantly of trips
by water to Greenwich, &c., and then of singing on the water, especially when
returning by moonlight. The boy, Tom Edwards, was usually of the party. Of
him, Pepys says (Oct. 25, 1664), " My boy could not sleep, but wakes about four
o'clock in the morning, and in bed laying playing on his lute till daylight, and it
seems did the like last night till twelve o'clock." And again, Dec. 26, 1668,
490 ITALIAN AND SCOTCH MUSIC.
" After supper I made the boy play upon his lute, and so, my mind in mighty
content, to bed."
Pepys evidently selected servants that could both sing and play, but it is
certain that there was no great difficulty in procuring them. If further proof
were required, I might quote the dramatists of the time, who, as in Shirley's
Court Secret, commonly attribute to the servants in their plays the ability to sing
" at first sight." Pepys' own taste was not fashionable, for on hearing a cele-
brated piece of music by Carissimi, he says, " Fine it was indeed, and too fine
for me to judge of." And again, on hearing Mrs. Manuels sing with an Italian,
he says, " Indeed she sings mightily well, and just after the Italian manner, but
yet do not please me like one of Mrs. Knipp's songs, to a good English tune, the
manner of their ayre not pleasing me so well as the fashion of our own, nor so
natural."
He first speaks of Scotch music in the year 1666, and it would seem to have
been then a novelty. In January he hears Mrs. Knipp, the actress, sing. " her
little Scotch song of Barlary Allen" at Lord Brouncker's, and he was "in
perfect pleasure to hear her sing" it. In the following July, he says, " To my
Lord Lauderdale's house to speak with him, and find him and his lady, and some
Scotch people, at supper. But at supper there played one of their servants upon
the viallin some Scotch tunes only ; several, and the best of their country, as
they seem to esteem them, by their praising and admiring them : but, Lord ! the
strangest ayre that ever I heard in my life, and all of one cast." His third and
last notice of Scottish music is in June, 1667. " Here in the streets I did hear
the Scotch march beat by the drums before the soldiers, which is very odd."
The first Scotch tunes that I have found printed in England are among the
" Select new Tunes and Jiggs for the Treble Violin," which were added to The
Dancing Master of 1665. These are " The Highlanders' March," " A Scotch
Firke," and " A Scots Rant.'* They are not included among the country-dances
in that publication ; neither do they appear in any other edition. The " Select
new tunes" were afterwards transferred to Apolk's Banquet for the Treble Violin."
In The Dancing Master of 1686 we find the first Scotch tune arranged as a
country-dance." This is " Johnny, cock thy beaver," which had been rendered
popular by Tom D'Urfey's song, " To horse, brave boys, to Newmarket, to horse,"
being written to it. On the other hand, the first collection of secular music
printed in Scotland, Forbes' Cantns, consists entirely of English compositions,
and songs to English ballad-tunes. The first edition was published in 1662,
the second in 1666, and the third in 1682. " Severall of the choisest Italian
songs and new English Ayres in three parts " were added to the Jast, and, with
that exception, all are for one voice. Forbes was a printer at Aberdeen, and
this was the only secular music published in Scotland during the seventeenth
century.
RETQN OF CHARLES II.
491
THE TWENY-NINTH OF MAY.
The following song " On the King's Birthday, May 29," (on which day
Charles the Second entered London after his restoration), is from a copy
printed in 1667.
The spirited tune is to be found in The Dancing Master of 1686, and in every
subsequent edition, under the title of The twenty-ninth of May. In several
of the editions it is printed twice; the second copy being under another
name. For instance, in the "Additional Sheet" to The Dancing Master of
1686, it appears as May Hill, or The Jovial Crew ; in " The Second Part " of that
of 1698, as The Jovial Beggars ; in the third volume of The Dancing Master, N.D.,
as the Restoration of King Charles.
It also bears the name of The Jovial Crew in Apollo's Banquet for the Treble
Violin.
.x Boldly.
el-come, welcome, roy - al May ! Welcome long de - sir-ed day !
Ma-ny Springs and Mays we've seen Have brought forth what's gay and green,
But none like this glorious Spring Whic*h brings forth our gra - cious King ; Then
ba - nish care, And let us sing, We have our laws, And we have our King
492
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
HERE'S A HEALTH UNTO HIS MAJESTY.
This was a very popular loyal song in the reign of Charles II. It is twice
mentioned by Shad well in his plays. Firstly, in The Miser (1672), where
Timothy says, " We can be merry as the best of you we can, i' faith and sing
A boat, a boat [haste to the ferry], or Here's a health to his Majesty, with a fa, la,
la, lero;" and secondly, in his Epsom Wells (1673), where Bisket says, " Come,
let's all be musitioners, and all roar and sing Here's a health unto his Majesty,
with a fa, la, la, la, la, lero"
The words are in Merry Drollery Complete, 1670 ; and words and music
together in Playford's Musical Companion, 1667, 1672, &c.
Dr. Kitchener, in his Loyal and National Songs of England, commits the sin-
gular mistake of printing the tenor part as the tune, instead of the treble ; and it
is the more remarkable, because the three parts, treble, tenor, and base, are printed
on the same page of the Musical Companion. Another blunder is his ascribing
it to Jeremiah Savage, instead of Jeremiah Savile.
Boldly and marked.
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Here'sa health un- to his Ma- jes-ty,Witha fal la la la la la la, Con-
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drink his health, I
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wish him nei-ther wit nor wealth, Nor
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hang himself. With a fal lal la la la la la la la la, With a fal lal la la la la la.
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.
REIGN OF CHARLES II. 493
GRIM KING OF THE GHOSTS.
Black-letter copies of this ballad are to be found in the Bagford, the Pepys,
the Douce, and the Roxburghe Collections. It is usually entitled " The Lunatick
Lover : Or the Young Man's call to Grim King of the Ghosts for cure. To an
excellent new tune." Percy reprinted it in his Reliques of Ancient Poetry, and
Ritson, in his Select Collection of English Songs; the first stanza will therefore
suffice.
" Grim King of the Ghosts ! make haste, Come, yon night hags, with all your
And bring hither all your train : And revelling witches, away, [charms,
Bee how the pale moon does waste, And hug me close in your arms ;
And just now is in the wane. To you my respects I'll pay."
Among the ballads sung to the tune, are the following :
1. " The Father's wholesome Admonition: To the tune of Grim King of the
Ghosts" See Roxburghe Collection, ii. 165.
2-. " The Subjects' Satisfaction ; being a new song of the proclaiming King
William and Queen Mary, the 13th of this instant February, to the great joy
and comfort of the whole kingdom. To the tune of G-rim King of the Ghosts,
or Hail to the myrtle shades" See Roxburghe Collection, ii. 437.
3. " The Protestant's Joy ; or an excellent new song on the glorious Coronation
of King William and Queen Mary, which in much triumph was celebrated at
Westminster on the llth of this instant April. Tune of Grim King of the
Ghosts, or Hail to the myrtle shades" This has a woodcut intended to represent
the King and Queen seated on the throne. See Bagford Collection (643, m. 10,
p. 172, Brit. Mus.) "Printed for J. Deacon, in Guiltspur Street." It
commences thus :
" Let Protestants freely allow Brave boys, let us merrily sing,
Their spirits a happy good cheer, While smiling full bumpers go round ;
Th' eleventh of April now, Hear joyful good tidings I bring,
Has prov'd the best day in the year. King William and Mary are crown'd."
The tune was introduced into The Beggars' Opera, The Devil to pay, The
Oxford Act, and other ballad-operas ; also printed in Watts' Musical Miscellany,
i. 126 (1729) to a song entitled "Rosalind's Complaint," commencing, "On the
bank of a river so deep."
It was to this air that Rowe wrote his celebrated song " Colin's Complaint;"
in which, according to Dr. Johnson, he alluded to his own situation with the
Countess Dowager of Warwick, and his successful rival, Addison. Goldsmith, in
his preface to TJie Beauties of English Poetry, says, " This, by Mr. Rowe, is better
than anything of the kind in our language." It commences
" Despairing beside a clear stream, The wind that blew over the plain,
A shepherd forsaken was laid ; To his sighs with a sigh did reply ;
And while a false nymph was his theme, And the brook, in return to his pain,
A willow supported his head : Ran mournfully murmuring by."
It has been reprinted in Ritson's English Songs, and in many other collections.
There are several parodies ; one of which is contained in " A complete Collection
494
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
of old and new English and Scotch Songs, with their respective tunes prefixed."
8vo., 1735, p. 82. It commences
" By the side of a great kitchen fire, A pudding was all his desire,
A scullion so hungry was laid ; A kettle supported his head."
Many of my readers will recollect another, attributed to Canning, commencing
" By the side of a neighbouring stream, On the top of his head was his wig,
As an elderly gentleman sat; On the top of his wig was his hat."
The tune is also well known, from a song called The Lover's Mistake, adapted
to it by Balfe, and sung on the stage by the late Madame Vestris.
When Gay introduced the air into The Beggars' Opera, he took the first line
(" Can love be controll'd by advice") from the following song by Mr. Berkeley.
It is said to have been addressed to the once well-known Viscountess Vane, whose
history is related by Smollett in the " Memoirs of a Lady of Quality," intro-
duced into his Peregrine Pickle. See the early editions.
Moderate time.
Can love be controll'd by ad - vice
"
Can madness andrea-son a - gree?
Mol - ly ! who'd e - ver be wise,
1
madness be lov - ins: of thee ?
?- : f ; in [
adness be lov-mg or
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Let sages pre - tend to des - pise The joys they want spirits to taste; Let
- ir r
r-if ' p
us seize old Time as he
And the blessings of life while they last.
Dull wisdom but adds to our cares ;
Brisk love will improve every joy ;
Too soon we may meet with gray hairs,
Too late may repent being coy.
Then, Molly, for what should we stay,
Till our best blood begins to run cold ?
Our youth we can have but to-day,
We may always find time to grow old.
REIGN OF CHARLES II. 495
THE KING'S JIG.
The dancing of jigs is now in a great measure confined to Ireland; but they
were formerly equally common in England and Scotland. The word "jig " is said
to be derived from the Anglo-Saxon, and in old English literature its application
extended, beyond the tune itself, to any jigging rhymes that might be sung to such
tunes. The songs sung by clowns after plays (which, like those of Tarleton,
were often extempore,) and any other merry ditties, were called jigs. " Nay,
sit down by my side, and I will sing thee one of my countrey jigges to make thee
merry," says Deloney, in his Thomas of Reading.
Pepys speaks of his wife's maid, Mary Mercer, as dancing a jig, " the best he
ever saw, she having the most natural way of it, and keeping time most
perfectly." Heywood includes jigs among the dances of the country people, in
the following passage from A Woman killed with kindness :
" Now, gallants, while the town musicians
Finger their frets a within, and the mad lads
And country lasses, every mother's child,
With nosegays and bride-laces in their hats.
Dance all their country measures, rounds, and jigs,
What shall we do ? Hark ! they're all on the hoigh ; b
They toil like mill-horses, and turn as round
Marry, not on the toe. Aye, and they caper
But not without cutting ; you shall see to-morrow
The hall floor peck'd and dinted like a millstone,
Made with their high shoes : though their skill be small,
Yet they tread heavy where their hobnails fall."
Jigs, however, were danced by persons of all ranks during the latter half of the
seventeenth century ; and this having been published as the The King's Jig,
during the life of Charles II. , we may suppose it to be one of the tunes to which
his majesty danced. The jigs of the Inner Temple, the Middle Temple, Lincoln's
Inn, Gray's Inn, and many others, are to be found in the editions of Apollo's
Banquet for the Treble Violin, printed in this, and the following reign.
D'Urfey wrote a descriptive song called " The Winchester Wedding; set to The
King's Jigg, a Country Dance ; " and it was published, with the tune, among
" Several new Songs by Tho. D'Urfey, Gent., set to as many new tunes by the
best masters in music," fol., 1684. It became very popular, was printed as a
penny ballad, and the tune became better known as The Winchester Wedding
than as TJie King's Jig. It is to be found, under the one name or the other, in
The Dancing Master of 1686, and every subsequent edition ; in Pills to purge
Melancholy ; and in many of the ballad-operas. The copies in the Pills, and
some others, are very incorrectly printed.
Among the ballads that were sung to the tune, I have already quoted one,
printed in July, 1685, " On the Virgins of Taunton Dean, who ript open their
t. <?., Play instruments that have frets, like viols and b Qutfre " dancing the Hey."
lutes, or such as guitars still have.
496
ENGLISH BONO AND BALLAD MUSIC.
silk petticoats to make colours for the late D[uke] of M[onmouth]'s army"
(ante p. 444). It commences
" In Lime began a rebellion, Rebels, almost a million,
For there the rebels came in ; Came there to make M[onmouth] king."
and there are many others, such as " A Fairing for young men and maids "
(Roxburghe Collection, ii. 162), &c.
Ritson reprinted The Winchester Wedding in his Ancient Songs, from a black-
letter ballad in the British Museum, but apparently without knowing it to have
been written by D'Urfey. It is scarcely repr in table now, and therefore the fol-
lowing first stanza must suffice.
Cheerfully.
^
At Winchester was a wedding, The like was ne - ver seen, 'Twixt
. r r^j^E^E^
3
lus - ty young Ralph of Read - ing, And bon - ny black Bess of the green ; The
-j . r r ---fl ' f = C-=E
fiddlers did crowd be-fore, Each lass was as fine as a queen, A hundred there were and more, For
'
3
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i
all the coun - try came in.
Brisk Ro - bin led Rose so fair, She
ook'd like a Lilly o'th' Vale, And ruddy-fac'd Harry led Mary, And Roger led bouncing Nell
REIGN OF CHARLES II.
497
SARABAND.
When in exile, Charles II. wrote to Henry Bennet to bring him as many new
corantos and sarabands, and other little dances, as he could get written down.
The following specimen of a saraband is from The Dancing Master of 1665 :
Rather slowly and stately.
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From the following passage in Sir W. Davenant's Law against Lovers (which
is a mixture of the two plots of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure and Much
Ado about Nothing) it would appear that the dancer of the saraband accompanied
it with castanets.
498 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
Beatrice. " Page, call Viola with her castanietos,
And bid Bernardo bring his guittar."
( Viola strikes the castaniets within.)
Benedict. " Those castanietos sound
Like a consort of squirrels cracking of nuts."
(Enter Viola dancing a saraband awhile with castanietos.)
There are no directions for the use of castanets in The Dancing Master,
because the tunes are there intended for country dances.
THE DELIGHTS OF THE BOTTLE.
In its original form, this was a song, sung by Bacchus, in the last act of
Shadwell's opera, Psyche, and the music by Matthew Lock. Shadwell wrote but
two stanzas, and as that would have been too short for a ballad, some ballad-
monger lengthened it into twelve. A copy will be found in the Roxburghe
Collection (ii. 106), containing five stanzas in the first part, and seven in the
second. The tune is there described as " a most admirable new tune, everywhere
much in request."
Playford printed the song in his Choice Ayres (omitting the chorus) ; and it
was arranged as a duet for his Pleasant Musical Companion (book ii., 2nd edit.,
1687). The words are also contained in the Antidote to. Melancholy, 1682.
In the Roxburghe Collection, iii. 188, is " The Prodigal Son converted ; Or
the young man returned from his ramble," &c. ; " To a pleasant new playhouse
tune, called The Delights of the Bottle" "London, printed for R. Burton, at
the Horse-shoe in West Smithfield." It commences
" The delights and the pleasures
Of a man without care."
In the same Collection, iii. 244, is a ballad on the Customs duty imposed upon
French wines, dated 1681, and entitled "The Wine Cooper's Delight;" to
the tune of The Delights of the Bottle. " Printed for the Protestant Ballad
Singers." This is also in the Collection of 180 Loyal Songs, 1685 and 1694,
p. 183. It consists of sixteen stanzas, commencing, " The delights of the bottle
are turn'd out of doors."
There are several other ballads extant, which were to be sung to the tune, and
among them, the following, which is in the Pepys Collection (i. 474). It was
printed for P. Brooksby, and licensed by Roger L'Estrange ; therefore the copy
cannot be of later date than the reign of James II., and is more probably of that
of Charles II.
" OLD CHRISTMAS RETURNED, or Hospitality revived ; Being a Looking-glass
for rich misers, wherein they may see (if they be not blind) how much they are
to blame for their penurious house-keeping ; and likewise an encouragement to
those noble-minded gentry who lay out a great part of their estate in hospitality,
relieving such persons as have need thereto :
Who feasts the poor, a true reward shall find,
Or helps the old, the feeble, lame, and blind."
To the tune of The Delights of the Bottle.
REIGN OF CHARLES II.
499
All you that to feasting and mirth are
inclin'd, [your mind,
Come, here is good news for to pleasure
Ola Christmas is come for to keep open
house,
He scorns to be guilty of starving a mouse :
Thon come, boys, and welcome of diet the
chief, [and roast-beef.
Plum-pudding, goose, capon, minc'd pies,
A long time together lie hath been forgot,
They scarce could afford for to hang on
the pot ; [been,
Such miserly sneaking in England hath
As by our forefathers ne'er us'd to be seen ;
But now he's returned you shall have in
brief, [and roast-beef.
Plum-pudding, goose, capo'n, minc'd pies,
The times were ne'er good since Old
Christmas was fled,
And all hospitality hath been so dead,
No mirth at our festivals late did appear,
They scarcely would part with a cup of
March beer ;
But now you shall have for the ease of
your grief, [and roast-beef.
Plum-pudding, goose, capon, minc'd pies,
The butler and baker, they now may be
glad, [have been bad ;
The times they are mended, though they
The brewer, he likewise may be of good
cheer, [strong beer,
He shall have good trading for ale and
All trades shall be jolly, and have for
relief, [and roast-beef.
Plum-pudding, goose, capon, minc'd pies,
The holly and ivy about the walls wind,
Aiid show that we ought to our neigh-
bours be kind,
Inviting each other for pastime and sport,
And where we best fare, there we most
do resort,
W>3 fail not of victuals, and that of the
chief, [and roast-beef.
Plum-pudding, goose, capon, minc'd pies,
The cooks shall be busied by day and by
night, [delight ;
In roasting and boiling, for taste and
Their senses in liquor that's nappy they'll
steep, [sleep ;
Though they be afforded to have little
They still are employed for to dress us, in
brief, [and roast-beef.
PI am -pudding, goose, capon, miiic'd pies,
Although the cold weather doth hunger
provoke, [smoke ;
'Tis a comfort to see how the chimneys do
Provision is making for beer, ale, and
wine,
For all that are willing or ready to dine;
Then haste to the kitchen for diet the
chief, [and roast-beef.
Plum-pudding, goose, capon, minc'd pies,
All travellers as they do pass on their way,
At gentlemen's halls are invited to stay,
Themselves to refresh, and their horses to
rest, [guest,
Since that he must be Old Christmas's
Nay, the poor shall not want, but have for
relief [and roast-beef.
Plum -pudding, goose, capon, minc'd pies,
Now Mock -beggar -hall it no more shall
stand empty, [plenty,
But all shall be furnisht with freedom and
The hoarding old misers who us'd to
preserve [poor starve,
The gold in their coffers, and see the
Must now spread their tables, and give
them in brief [and roast-beef.
Plum-pudding, goose, capon, minc'd pies,
The court, and the city, and country, are
glad [sad ;
Old Christmas is come to cheer up the
Broad pieces and guineas about now shall
%,
And hundreds be losers by cogging a die,
Whilst others are feasting with diet the
chief, [and roast-beef.
Plum -pudding, goose, capon, minc'd pies,
Those that have no coin at the cards for
to play,
May sit by the fire, and pass time away,
And drink off their moisture contented
and free, [to thee,"
" My honest good fellow, come, here is
And when they are hungry, fall to their
relief [and roast-beef.
Plum-pudding, goose, capon, minc'd pies,
Young gallants and ladies shall foot it
along, [shall throng,
Each room in the house to the music
Whilst jolly carouses about they shall
pass, [his lass ;
And each country swain trip about with
Meantimes goes the caterer to fetch in the
chief, [and roast-beef.
Plum -pudding, goose, capon, minc'd pies,
2 K
500
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
The cooks and the scullion, who toil in We feast it all day, and we frolic all night,
their frocks, [mas box ; Both hunger and cold we keep out with
Their hopes do depend upon their Christ- relief, [and roast-beef.
And few there are now that do live on the Plum-pudding, goose, capon, minc'd pies
But enjoy at this time either p^nfor Then to all curmudgeons who dote on
Yea, many are charged to give for . * 1 TT t ; [their heath,
relief, [and roast-beef. And value the.r treasure much more than
Plum-pudding, goose, capon, minc'd pies, * ha^themselves up, rfthey ** be^o
Then well may we welcome Old Christ* Old Christmas with them but small wel-
mas to town, [liquor so brown, They will not afford to themselves with-
Who brings us good cheer, and good out grief,
To pass the cold winter away with de- Plum-pudding, goose, capon, minc'd pies,
light, and roast beef.
The following is the original song from Psyche, 4to., 1675. "In musick,"
says Roger North, " Matthew Lock had a robust vein," of which the following is
rather characteristic.
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- tie and the charms of good wine, To the
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pow - er and the plea-sures of love must re - sign ; Though the
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joys of good drink - ing be past,
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REIGN OF CHARLES II.
501
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Love and wine are the bonds that fasten us all, Mankind for each trifle their lives would re-
The world, but for these, to confusion would sign ; [out thinking,
fall : They'd not value dull life, nor could live with-
Were it not for the pleasures of love and good Nor would kings rule the world, but for love
wine, and good drinking.
BONNY NELL.
From one of the earliest editions of Playford's Apollo's Banquet, without a
title page, probably of 1670.
In Westminster Drollery, 3rd edit., 1674, is a song beginning " A blithe and
bonny Country Lass ;" and in the second stanza are these lines :
" When as the wanton girl espied
The means to make herself a bride,
She simpered much like bonny Nell."
I suppose Nell Gwyn to be intended, and that this tune is also named from her.
Dr. Richard Corbett, afterwards Bishop of Norwich, wrote some verses to a
tune of Bonny Nell, which could not be sung to this air ; and, as Dr. Corbett was
a singer, and not likely to mistake the rhythm, I have no doubt of there having been
another tune, under the same name, and of earlier date. " After he was D.D.," says
Aubrey, " he sang ballads at the Cross of Abingdon. On a market day, he and
some of his comrades were at the tavern by the Cross (which, by the way, was
then the finest in England), and a ballad singer complained that he had no cus-
tom ; he could not put off his ballads. The jolly Doctor put off his gown, and
put on the ballad singer's leathern jacket ; and, being a handsome man, and
having a rare full voice, he presently had a great audience, and vended a large
number of ballads."
Dr. Corbett' s verses commence
" It is not yet a fortnight since
Lutetia entertain'd a prince;"
and are entitled " A grave Poem, as it was presented by certain divines by way
502
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
of Interlude, before his Majesty in Cambridge, stiPd Liber novus de adventu regis
ad Cantabrigiam, faithfully done into English, with some liberal advantages, made
rather to be sung than read, to the tune of Bonny Nell" A copy in MSS.
Ashmole, 36, 37, art. 271, and in Nicholls' Progresses of King James, iii. 66, as
well as " A Cambridge Madrigal, confuting the Oxford Ballad that was sung to
the tune of Bonny Nell."
Massinger alludes to some " Bonny Nell," in his Old Law, act iv., sc. 1, where
the Cook says, "That Nell was Helen of Greece too;" and Gnotho answers,
" As long as she tarried with her husband, she was Ellen ; but after she came to
Troy, she was Nell of Troy, or Bonny Nell." There is much punning on
musicians in this scene ; as " ^re-drawers " they are compared to m'we-drawers,
both being governed by pegs, both having pipes and sack-buts, only the heads
differ ; the one hogsheads, the other cittern or gittern heads, but still each wooden
heads, &c.
In the Pepys Collection, i. 70, is " A Battell of Birds most strangly fought in
Ireland upon the 8th day of September, 1621, where neere unto the Citty of
Corke, by the river Lee, were gathered together such a multytude of Stares, or
Starlings, as the like for number was never scene in any age. To the tune of
Shore's Wife, or to the tune of Bonny Nell." And in the same, iii. 124 (or
Roxburghe, i. 84), another " to an excellent new tune, or to be sung to Bonny
Nell" which commences
" As I went forth one summer's day,
To view the meadows fresh and gay,
A pleasant bower I espied,
^ Merrily.
Standing hard by the river's side ;
And in't I heard a maiden cry,
Alas ! there's none e'er lov'd like I.'
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at
REIGN OP CHARLES II. 503
THE LASS OF CUMBERLAND.
The copies of this ballad and tune are still numerous. The tune is in a
manuscript in the Music School, Oxford, dated 1670, in 180 Loyal Songs, 1685
and 1694, in Youth's Delight on the Flagelet, in several of the editions of
Apollo's Banquet, and in every edition of Pills to purge Melan&holy.
In 180 Loyal Songs, p. 219, is " The Creditors' Complaint against the Bankers ;
or, The Iron Chest the best Security :^
Since bankers are grown BO brittle of late,
That money and bankers together are flown,
I'll chest up my money ; and then, 'spite of fate,
Let 'em all break their necks my money's my own.
To the tune of There was a Lass of Cumberland" It consists of ten stanzas ;
and commences :
" Bankers are now such brittle ware, An iron chest is still the best, [they,
They break just like a Venice glass ; 'Twill keep your coin more safe than
If you trust them, then have a care, For, when they've feathered well their nest,
Lest your coin to foreign lands do pass. Then the rooks willjly away"
In the same collection are two on James II. , then Duke of York. The first,
p. 176, " The honour of great York and Albany. To a new tune" The second,
p. 177, " Loyalty respected, and Faction confounded. To an excellent new tune."
The music of There was a Lass of Cumberland is printed as the tune in question.
The last commences with the line,
" Let the cannons roar from sea to shore."
In the Roxburghe Collection, ii. 368, is " The Northern Lad ; or, The Fair
Maid's Choice, who refused all for a Plowman, counting herself therein most
happy, &c. To the tune of There was a Lass in Cumberland" The printer's
name is cut off this copy, which is a version of the ballad differing from that in
the Pills and in the Douce Collection. It commences :
" I am a lass o' th' North Countrey, But to led to me, to led to me,
And I was born and bred a-whome ; The lad that gangs to bed with me,
Many a lad has courted me, A jovial plowman must he le,
And swore that they to woo me come. The lad that comes to led to me"
The Douce copy, p. 43, is entitled " Cumberland Nelly ; or, The North
Country Lovers, &c. Tune of The Lass that comes to led to me" It commences :
" There was a lass of Cumberland,
A bonny lass of high degree :
There was a lass, her name was Nell,
The blithest lass that e'er you see.
Oh ! to bed to me, to bed to me," &c.
In the same collection, p. 44, is " Cumberland Laddy ; or, Willy and Nelly
oi the North ;" to the same tune. The first printed by J. Conyers, at the
Black Raven in Duck Lane, the second by Coles, Vere, Wright, and Clarke.
In Youth's Delight on the Flagelet, the tune is entitled To led to me ; or, The
Northern Lass : in Apollo's Banquet, To led we'll go.
504
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
Another song entitled " The Cumberland Lass," commencing
" In Cumberland there dwells a maid,
Her charms are past compare,"
will be found in " A Complete Collection of Old and New English and Scotch
Songs," i. 179, 8vo., 1735. It is in the wrong metre for this tune.
Moderate time, and with expression.
There was a lass of Cum-berland, A bon-ny lass of high degree, There
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COME, OPEN THE DOOR, SWEET BETTY.
In the Pepys Collection, iii. 62, and in the Roxburghe, ii. 238, are copies of
the ballad, entitled " John's earnest request ; or, Betty's compassionate love ex-
tended to him in a time of distress. To a pleasant new tune much in request."
Printed for P. Brooksby, at the Golden Ball in Pye Corner. It consists of nine
stanzas, the first of which is here printed to the tune.
This air will be found in the ballad operas of Flora, 1729, The Cobblers' Opera,
1729, and Achilles, 1733. The following words, adapted to it in Flora, became
popular, and were reprinted in The Syren (12mo., 1735), and other song-books.
In The Livery Rake, the air is named from them.
" O fly from this place, dear Flora, Dearest creature, exchange for the better,
Thy gaoler has set thee free, Confinement can have no charms,
And before the next blush of Aurora Think which of your prisons is sweeter,
You'll find a kind guardian in me. This, or a young lover's arms."
In Burns' remarks on the songs in Johnson's Scot's Musical Museum, he speaks
of " old words" to " Blink o'er the burn, sweet Betty," and says, " All that
I remember are
Blink over the burn, sweet Betty,
It is a cauld winter night ;
It rains, it hails, it thunders,
The moon she gives nae light.
It's a' for the sake o' sweet Betty,
That ever I tint my way ;
Sweet, let me lie beyond thee,
Until it be break o' day.
O Betty will bake my bread,
And Betty will brew my ale,
And Betty will be my love
When I come over the dale.
Blink over the burn, sweet Betty,
Blink over the burn to me,
And while I hae life, dear lassie,
My am sweet Betty thou 't be."
REIGN OF CHARLES II.
505
The Scotch tune, " Blink over the burn, sweet Betty,"* bears no resemblance
to " Come, open the door, sweet Betty," nor do the Scotch words, in any early
collection, resemble the English ; but the song quoted by Burns, and since adopted
in Wood's Songs of Scotland, is evidently taken from the following ballad.
Very slowly, and with expression.
f T
Come, o - pen the door, sweet Bet - ty, For 'tis a cold win-ter's
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night, It r rains, and it blows and thunders, And the moon it does give no light.
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" Come, open the door, sweet Betty," re-appears in the first part of a tune
called Tom Nokes' Jigg. The time is changed ; it is quick, and in | measure, but
evidently from the same root. It is to be found in the first edition of Apollo* } s
Banquet, 1669. Tom Nokes (from whom it derives its name) was a favourite
actor in the reign of Charles the Second. The following notice of Nokes and
Nell Gwyn is from the appendix to Downes' Roscius Anylicanus, edition of
1789 :
1 It has been stated that the first line of " Blink o'er
thi burn" is quoted by Shakespeare in King Lear, actiii.,
BC. 6 :
" Wantest thou eyes at trial, Madam?
Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me;"
bin the allusion is to an English ballad by William Birch,
entitled "A Songe betwene the Quenes Majestie and
Er ijlande," a copy of which is in the library of the Society
of Antiquaries. England commences the dialogue, in-
vit ng Queen Elizabeth in the following words :
" Come over the born, Bessy, come over the born, Bessy,
Swete Bessy, come over to me."
Another, " Come o'er the burne, Bessie," will be found
in Addit. MSS. Brit. Mus. No. 5665, with music. I may
here remark, that the tune to Take thy old]cloak about
thee (one of the ballads quoted by Shakespeare) is
evidently formed out of Green Sleeves. The earliest
known copy of the words is in English idiom, in Bishop
Percy's folio manuscript, and I have little doubt that
both words and music are of English origin.
506
ENOLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
" At the Duke's theatre, Nokes appeared in a hat larger than Pistol's, which took
the town wonderful, and supported a bad play by its pure effect. Dryden, piqued at
this, caused a hat to be made the circumference of a hinder coach-wheel ; and as Nelly
(Nell Gwyn) was low of stature, and what the French call mignonne and piquante,
he made her speak under the umbrella of that hat, the brims thereof being spread out
horizontally to their full extension. The whole theatre was in a convulsion of ap-
plause; nay, the very actors giggled, a circumstance none had observed before.
Judge, therefore, what a condition tbe merriest Prince alive was in, at such a con-
juncture ! 'Twas beyond odso and odsfish, for he wanted little of being suffocated
with laughter."
Cheerfully. ToNoKESJio.
THERE WERE THREE TRAVELLERS.
In a Collection of Satirical Songs by the Earl of Rochester (Harl. MSS.,
No. 6913), is " A new ditty to an old tune of Three Travellers" beginning
" I'll shew you the Captains of Aubrey Vere,
With a hey ho, langled down dilly ;
Fit Captains to serve with so noble a peer,
Who has never a penny of money"
A copy of the ballad in the Bagford Collection (643, m. 9, p. 88) is entitled
" The Jovial Companions ; or, The Merry Travellers, who paid their shot where
ever they came, without ever a stiver of money : To an excellent North-country
tune" Printed by C. Bates, at the Sun and Bible, in Pye Corner. It is also
contained in Pills to purge Melancholy, vi. 177.
Cheerfully. ^ ^^ ,
There were three travellers, travellers three, With a hey down, ho down, langtreedown deny, And
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they would go tra - vel the North Country, Without e - ver a eti- ver of
mo - ney.
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The story is, that the three travellers make themselves so agreeable to the
hostess, wherever they go, that they are suffered to depart scot-free, a very
pleasant theory.
REIGN OF CHARLES II.
507
WILLY WAS SO BLITHE A LAD.
This " Northern Song" is contained in the first edition of Playford's Choice
Ayres, Book I. It bears a strong family likeness to the " rare Northern tune,"
Never love thee more (ante Vol. L, p. 380).
Moderate
[O] Wil - ly was so blithe a lad, Ne'an like was in the
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TO ALL YOU LADIES NOW AT LAND.
This ballad was written by Lord Buckhurst, afterwards Earl of Dorset, when
at sea during the first Dutch war, 1604-5. It has been said to have been written
" the night before the engagement ; " but, in all probability, was penned during
the Duke of York's first cruise, in November, 1664, when an action was avoided
by the Dutch retiring to port.
The proof is, that it is mentioned by Pepys in his Diary, under the date of
Jan. 2, 1664-5. He says, " To my Lord Brouncker's by appointment, in the
Piazza, Covent Garden ; where I occasioned much mirth with a ballet I brought
with me, made from the seamen at sea to the ladies in town."
508
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
The statement that it was " made the night before the engagement," which action
took place in June, 1665, is irreconcileable with Pepys' possession of a copy in
the preceding January, and has been carefully analysed by Lord Braybrooke, in
his notes upon Pepys' s Diary, v. 241, edit. 1849. It rests upon the authority of
Matthew Prior, who was born in 1664, and who had probably heard the story
with a little embellishment.
In Merry Drollery Complete, 1670, is the song " My mistress is a shuttlecock,"
to this tune. In A Pill to purge State Melancholy, 12mo., 1715, is "The
Soldiers' Lamentation for the loss of their General," &c., to the tune of " To
you fair ladies ;" and the same was printed in broadside with the date of 1712.
Also, " News from Court, a ballad to the tune of To all you ladies now at land,
by Mr. Pope," 1719. In the Gentleman's Magazine for July, 1731, "To all
you Ladies now at Bath."
The tune is in Watts' Musical Miscellany, vol. iii., 1730, and in the Convivial
Songster, 1782 ; in the ballad-operas of The Jovial Crew, The Collier's Opera,
The Lover's Opera, T/ie Court Legacy, Polly, A Cure for a Scold, &c. ; and
(barbarously printed) in Pills to purge Melancholy, vi. 272.
./Cheerfully and smoothly.
all you la - dies now at land,
first would have you un-derstand How hard it is to write : The muses now, and
Nep-tune too, We must im-plore to write to you, With a fa, la la la, la la, la la la la.
^
3
For though the Muses should prove kind,
And fill our empty Drain ;
Yet if rough Neptune rouse the \vii>d
To wave the azure main,
Our paper, pen, and ink, and we,
Roll up and down our ships at sea,
With a fa la, &c.
Then if we write not by each post,
Think not we are unkind ;
Nor yet conclude our ships are lost
By Dutchmen or hy wind :
Our tears we'll send a speedier way,
The tide shall bring them twice a-day.
With a fa la, &c.
REIGN OF CHARLES II.
509
The king, with wonder and surprise,
Will swear the seas grow bold ;
Because the tides will higher rise,
Than e'er they did of old :
I'.ut let him know it is our tears
Brings floods of grief to Whitehall stairs.
With a fa la, &c.
Should foggy Opdam chance to know
Our sad and dismal story ;
The Dutch would scorn so weak a foe,
And quit their fort at Goree :
For what resistance can they find
From men who've left their hearts behind?
With a fa la, &c.
Let wind and weather do its worst,
Be you to us but kind ;
Let Dutchmen vapour, Spaniards curse,
No sorrow shall we find :
Tis then no matter how things go,
Or who's our friend, or who's our foe,
With a fa la, &c.
To pass our tedious hours away,
We throw a merry main ;
Or else at serious ombre play ;
But why should we in vain
Each other's ruin thus pursue ?
We were undone when we left you.
With a fa la, &c.
But now our fears tempestuous grow,
And cast our hopes away :
Whilst you regardless of our woe,
Sit careless at a play :
Perhaps permit some happier man
To kiss your hand, or flirt your fan.
With a fa la, &c.
When any mournful tune you hear,
That dies in every note ;
As if it sigh'd with each man's care,
For being so remote :
Think then how often love we've made
To you, when all those tunes were play'd.
With a fa la, &c.
In justice you cannot refuse,
To think of our distress ;
When we for hopes of honour lose
Our certain happiness ;
All those designs are but to prove
Ourselves more worthy of your love.
With a fa la, &c.
And now we've told you all our loves,
And likewise all our fears ;
In hopes this declaration moves
Some pity for our tears ;
Let's hear of no inconstancy,
We have too much of that at sea.
With a fa la, &c.
THE FAIR ONE LET ME IN.
A black-letter copy of this ballad in the Roxburghe Collection, ii. 240, is
entitled, "Kind Lady; or, The Loves of Stella and Adonis: A new court song,
much in request. To a new tune, or Hey, boys, up go we, The Charming Nymph,
or Jenny, gin." It commences
" The night her blackest sables wore," &c.
Tho " new tune" soon became popular, and many other ballads were sung to it.
In the same volume of the Roxburghe Collection are "The Good Fellow's
Frolic; or, Kent Street Club: To the tune of The fair one let me in, p. 198;
" The love-sick Maid of Wapping," p. 295 ; and a third ballad at p. 270.
In the Douce Collection, p. 55, is " The despairing Maiden reviv'd by the
return of her dearest love," &c. "To the tune of The fair one let me in, or
Emy Fame, or Jenny, gin;" commencing
; ' As I walkt forth to take the air, And for to view the lilies fair,
One morning in the Spring, To hear the small birds sing," &c.
Tho words of the original song, " The night her blackest sables wore," or " The
fair one let me in," were written by D'Urfey, and the tune composed by Thomas
Farmer. They were published together in "A new Collection of Songs and
Poems, by Thomas D'Urfey, Gent. Printed for Joseph Hindmarsh, at the Black
510 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
Bull, in Cornhill," 1683 (8vo.) ; and there entitled, " The generous Lover, a
new song, set by Mr. Tho. Farmer." In the same year, they were included in
the fourth book of " Choice Ayres and Songs to sing to the Theorbo-lute or Bass-
viol: being most of the newest Ayres and Songs sung at Court, and at the
Public Theatres ; Composed by several Gentlemen of His Majesty's Musick, and
others ; " and the tune alone, printed in " The Genteel Companion for the Re-
corder, by Humphrey Salter, Gent." It then passed into Pills to purge
Melancholy, and was included in the first volume of every edition ; the tune was
also introduced into many ballad-operas.
I may here remark that the Pills of 1719, having been made up by D'Urfey,
the two first volumes consist exclusively of his songs. Older songs which were
contained in the first and second volumes of prior editions were then transferred
from the first to the third, from the second to the fourth, and some to the fifth.
He removed only two or three of his own songs.
Although there can be no doubt of the authorship of the words and music of
this song, it has been claimed as Scotch. About fifty years after its first publica-
tion, the tune appears in a corrupt form, in Thomson's Orpheus Caledonius, ii. 14
(1733). The alterations may have arisen from having been traditionally sung, or
may have been made by Thomson. There are also a few changes in the words, such
as the name of " Stella " altered to " Nelly," and " she rose and let me in " to
" she raise and loot me in." These were copied from vol. ii. of Allan Ramsay's
Tea-table Miscellany, in which the song is marked " z," as being old.
Allan Ramsay was not particular as to the nationality of his songs, it sufficed
that they were popular in Scotland. His collection includes many of English origin ;
and several of the tunes to which the songs were to be sung are English and
Anglo- Scottish. Ritson claimed this, in his Essay on Scottish Song, as " an English
song of great merit, which has been scotified by the Scots themselves." Upon
which, Mr. Stenhouse, in his notes to Johnson's Scot's Musical Museum, asks,
" Could any person in his sound senses affirm that such lines as the following, in
Playford's edition of the song, printed in his fourth volume of Choice Ayres and
Songs, with the music, in 1683, were not only English, but English of great merit,
too ? " Mr. Stenhouse's opinion of the merits or demerits of the song are of
little importance : it suffices to say that Burns differed from him ; but to
assert that the copy in Playford's Choice Ayres is not English, betrays an excess
of nationality that made him utterly regardless of his own future credit for
veracity. In the forty lines, of which the song consists, there is not a single
Scotch word, not even one that could be mistaken for Scotch, unless it were
"bern" for "child!" If Mr. Stenhouse had only a pocket dictionary, which
did not contain old words, he certainly used a copy of Percy's Reliques of Ancient
Poetry, in the glossary to which he would have found " barne, berne man,
person. " If " bairn " had been the word, the mistake would have been more
excusable, because it is the more common form in Scotland ; but whether written
" barn," " bern," " beam," or " bairn," all are English, and words in use at
that time. D'Urfey spells it " beam," in his Songs and Poems, as in Bailey's
REIGN OF CHARLES II.
511
Dictionary. "Awd men are twice bairnes" is one of the Yorkshire proverbs,
at ~he end of Tlie Praise of Yorkshire Ale, by G. M., Gent., 8vo., York,
1697. It would have been unnecessary to refer at such length to Mr.
Stenhouse's " notes," if they had not been transferred to more recent works ; but,
in tie first place, the editor of Messrs. Blackie's Book of Scottish Song repeats
his statement, that " the original Scotch words are to be found in Play ford's
Choice Ayres" In the second, Mr. Stenhouse telling us that this song was
" originally written by Francis Semple, Esq., of Beltrees, about the year 1650,"
it has been recently printed among poems by Francis Sempill. Even the
learned editor of Wood's Songs of Scotland does not question statements so
audaciously put forth, although he has frequently had occasion to convict Mr.
Stenhouse of misquoting the contents of music-boooks that he pretended to have
read, but was unable to decipher.
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In D'Urfey's /S'o^s aw^ Poems, the last line is " This angel let me in," which
in my copy is altered by a contemporary hand to " The fair one," as it stands in
all < ther copies.
512
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
MAD ROBIN.
This tune is in The Dancing Master of 1686 (additional sheet), and in all later
editions. Also in Potty, 1728 ; The Lovers' Opera, 1729 ; The Stage Mutineers,
1733 ; and many other ballad -operas.
" 'Tis but a day or two ago since our mistress turn'd away her old servant, because
he would not play Mad Robin, which the organist has promised to do. I will say
that for him, the old organist was an excellent musician, but somewhat of a hu-
mourist; he would have his own way, and play his own tunes." History of
Robert Powel, the Puppet-showman, 8vo., 1715.
I have not succeeded in finding the song of Mad Robin, and have therefore
taken the first and last stanzas of a ballad contained in a manuscript of the time
of James L, now in the possession of Mr. Payne Collier. I have no authority
for coupling them with the tune, but prefer those old words to any written
expressly to the air in the ballad-operas.
Smoothly, and moderate time.
Love me lit - tie, love me long, la the bur-den of my song,
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Love that last - eth till
'tis old,
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Fa - deth not in haste.
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Winter's cold, or summer's heat,
Autumn's tempests on it beat,
It can never know defeat,
Never can rebel :
Such the love that I would gain,
Such love, I tell thee plain,
Thou must give, or woo in vain,
So, to thee, farewell.
REIGN OF CHARLES II. 513
THE LEATHER BOTTEL.
Although I have not found any copy of this ballad printed before the reign
of Charles II., there appears reason for believing it to be of much earlier date.
The irregularity in the number of lines in each stanza, eight, ten, and some-
times twelve in the earlier copies, gives it the character of a minstrel produc-
tion, such as Richard Sheale's Chevy Chace, rather than of the Eldertons,
Delonys, or Martin Parkers of the reigns of Elizabeth and James, who all
observed a just number of lines in their ballads. The word " bottle " was not
pronounced "bottel" in the reign of Charles II., or even in the time of
Shakespeare ; such pronunciation belongs rather to the era of Chaucer and Piers
Ploughman, than to the later period. The Rev. Arthur Bedford, in his Great
Abuse of Music, 8vo, 1711, speaks of the commencement of the ballad,
" 'Twas God above that made all things," &c.,
ending the stanza with " So I wish his soul in heav'n may dwell
That first devised the leather bottell,"
as irreverent ; but I believe it by no means to have been intentionally so, but rather
that the rambling beginning is another proof of its antiquity. A very early ballad,
written by a priest in the reign of Queen Mary (a copy of which is in the library
of the Society of Antiquaries), commences in a very similar manner, and the
metre is so like that it might be sung to the same tune. It is entitled " A new
Ballade of the Marigolde," and opens thus :
" The God above, for man's delight, And flowres that are so flourishyng :
Hath heere ordaynde every thing, Amonges all which that I beholde
Sonne, Moone and Sterres shinying so (As to my minde best contentyng),
bright, [spring, I doo commende the Marigolde."
With all kind frnites, that here doth
In the seventh stanza
" To Marie our Queene, that flowre so For her enduryng paciently
This Marigolde I doo apply, [sweete, The stormes of such as list to scokle
For that the name doth serve so meete At her dooynges, without cause why,
And properlee in each partie, Loth to see spring this Marigolde.
At the end, " God save the Queene. Quod William Forrest, Freest"* Printed
by R ichard Lant, in Aldersgate Street.
But, to return to The Leather Bottel. Copies are to be found in the Bagford,
Roxlurghe, and other Collections ; in the list of those printed by Thackeray ;
in Wit and Drollery, 1682 ; in The New Academy of Compliments, 1694 and
1713 ; in Pills to purge Melancholy; in Dryden's Miscellany Poems ; and in
a succession of others to the present day. Mr. Sandys contributed a Somerset-
shire version to Mr. Dixon's Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England.
We find it alluded to in "Hey for our Town, or a fig for Zommersetshire "
(Douce Coll., p. 96):
" Come, sing us a merry catch, quo' Bob,
Quo' scraper, what's the words ?
In praise o' th' Leather Bottel, quo' Bob,
For we'll be merry as lords."
In ihe same volume in the library of the Society of Antiquaries, is a ballad on the marriage of Queen Mary
and Philip, by John Hey wood.
514
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
In Westminster Drollery, Part II. , 1672, and in Pills to purge Melancholy,
i. 267 (1707), are two versions of a similar ballad in praise of the Black Jack.
The first has the burden
" And 1 wish his heirs may never want sack,
That first devis'd the bonny black jack."
There is a version of the tune in Pills to purge Melancholy, but the traditional
copy is so well known, that I give it in preference.
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all therein, The ships that on the sea do swim To guard from foes that none come in ; And
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let them all do what they can, 'Twas for one end, the use of man, So I wish in heaven his
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soul may dwell, That first found out
the
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Now, what do you say to these cans of wood ?
Oh no, in faith they cannot be good ;
For if the bearer fall by the way,
Why, on the ground your liquor doth lay :
But had it been in a leather bottel,
Although he had fallen, all had been well.
So I wish in heav'n, &c.
Then what do you say to these glasses fine ?
Oh, they shall have no praise of mine,
For if you chance to touch the brim,
Down falls the liquor and all therein ;
But had it been in a leather bottel,
And the stopple in, all had been well.
So I wish, &c.
KEIQN OF CHARLES II. 515
Then what do you say to these black pots three ? At noon, the haymakers sit them down,
If a man and his wife should not agree, [spill : To drink from their bottles of ale nut-brown ;
Why they'll tug and pull till their liquor doth In summer too, when the weather is warm,
In a leather bottel they may tug their fill, A good bottle full will do them no harm.
And pull away till their hearts do ake, Then the lads and the lasses begin to tattle,
And yet their liquor no harm can take. But what would they do without this bottle ?
So I wish, &c. So I wish, c.
Then what do you say to these flagons fine ? There's never a Lord, an Earl, or Knight,
Oh, they shall have no praise of mine, But in this bottle doth take delight ;
For when a Lord is about to dine, For when he's hunting of the deer,
And sends them to be filled with wine, He oft doth wish for a bottle of beer.
The man with the flagon doth run away, Likewise the man that works in the wood,
Because it is silver most gallant and gay. A bottle of beer will oft do him good.
So I wish, &c. So I wish, &c.
A leather bottel we know is good, And when the bottle at last grows old,
Far better, than glasses or cans of wood, And will good liquor no longer hold,
For when a man's at work in the field, Out of the side you may make a clout,
Your glasses and pots no comfort will yield ; To mend your shoes when they're worn out ;
But a good leather bottle standing by, Or take and hang it up on a pin,
Will raise his spirits, whenever he's dry. 'Twill serve to put hinges and odd things in.
So I wish, &c. So I wish, &c.
As to leather bottles, Heywood thus enumerates the various descriptions, in his
Fhilocothonista, 4to., 1635, p. 45 : " Other bottles we have of leather, but they
most used amongst the shepheards and harvest people of the countrey; small
jacks we have in many ale-houses of the citie and suburbs, tipt with silver ; be-
sides the great black-jack and bombards at the court, which, when the Frenchmen
first saw, they reported at their returne into their countrey, that the Englishmen
used to drink out of their boots." These bombards, according to Taylor, the
water-poet, each held a gallon and a half, in the reign of James I. ; and the
merchants of London, who had to pay a tax of two bombards of wine to the
Lieutenant of the Tower, out of every ship that brought wine into the river
Thames, contended, but unsuccessfully, that they had been unduly increased
in size. " When the bottle and jack stand together, fie on't,
The bottle looks just like a dwarf to a giant ;
Then have we not reason the jacks to choose,
For they will make boots, when the bottle mends shoes."
TURN AGAIN, WH1TTINGTON;
" The tradition of Whittington' s cat," says Mr. J. H. Burn, " has served to
amuse and delight the childhood of many, many thousands ; nor is it possible in
more adult years to shake off the delusion cherished and imbibed in our youthful
dreams. Still it has no reality; it is a pleasing fiction, so agreeable to our
better feelings, so happy in its believed results, that regret is excited when it
happens not to be true."
" Sir Richard Whittington, thrice Lord Mayor of London, in the years 1397,
1406, and 1419, was born in 1360, the son of Sir William Whittington, Knight,
a id dame Joan his wife. He was therefore not a poor boy ; and the story of his
2L
516 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
halting, a tired, justifiable runaway, and resting on a stone at Holloway, while
Bow-bells merrily sounded to his hearing
"Turn again Whittington, thrice Lord Mayor of London,"
has no other origin than a flourish of fancy created by some poetical brain."
(Catalogue of the Beaufoy Tokens , p. 161.)
The earliest notice I have observed of Turn again, Whittington, as a tune (if
a mere change upon bells may come under that denomination), is in Shirley's
Constant Maid, act ii., sc. 2, 4to., 1640, where the niece says
" Faith, how many churches do you mean to build
Before you die ? six bells in every steeple,
And let them all go to the city tune,
Turn again, Whittington, who, they say,
Grew rich, and let his land out for nine lives,
'Cause all came in by a cat."
Mr. Burn points out various earlier notices of Whittington and his cat, as in
Eastward Hoe (printed in 1605), where Touchstone assures Golding he hopes to
see him reckoned one of the worthies of the city of London, " when the famous
fable of Whittington and his puss shall be forgotten."
The story of the cat is, perhaps, immediately derived from Arlotto's " Novella
delle Gatte," contained in his Facetice, which were printed soon after his death
in 1483. The story is there told of a merchant of Genoa, but it is probably of
Eastern origin. The late Sir William Gore Ouseley, in his travels, speaking of
an island in the Persian Gulf, relates, on the authority of a Persian MS., that,
" in the tenth century, one Keis, the son of a poor widow in Siraf, embarked
for India with a cat, his only property. There he fortunately arrived at a time
when the palace was so infested by mice or rats, that they invaded the king's
food, and persons were employed to drive them from the royal banquet. Keis
produced his cat ; the noxious animals soon disappeared, and magnificent rewards
were bestowed on the adventurer of Siraf, who returned to that city, and after-
wards, with his mother and brothers, settled on the island, which from him has
been denominated Keis, or according to the Persians, Keish."
The numerous charities, and the public works, with which his name was asso-
ciated, would justly transmit the name of Sir Richard Whittington to posterity.
" Amongst others, he founded a house of prayer, with an allowance for a master,
fellows, choristers, clerks, &c., and an alms-house for thirteen poor men, called
Whittington College. He entirely rebuilt the loathsome prison, which was then
standing at the west gate of the city, and called it Newgate. He built the better half
of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, in West Smithfield; and the fine library in Grey
Friars, now called Christ's Hospital; as also a great part of the east end of
Guildhall, with a chapel and a library, in which the records of the city might be
kept." Grafton, in his Chronicle, relates an anecdote of him, which is not else-
where recorded. In a codicil to his will, he commanded his executors, as they
should one day answer before God, to look diligently over the list of the persons
indebted to him, and if they found any who was not clearly possessed of three
times as much as would fully satisfy all the claim, they were freely to forgive
REIGN OF CHARLES II.
517
it. He also added, that no man whatever should be imprisoned for any debt
due to his estate. " Look upon this, ye aldermen," says the historian empha-
tic-ally, " for it is a glorious glass ! " a
The ballad was entered at Stationers' Hall a few months later than a drama
on the same subject. The following extracts are from the registers of the
Company. On Feb. 8, 1604-5, entered to Tho. Pavier, " The History of Richard
"Whittington, of his lowe birthe, his great fortune, as yt was plaied by the
Prynce's Servants;" and on July 6 (1605), to Jo. Wright, "a ballad called
The wondrous Lyfe and memorable Death of Sir Ri : Whittington now sometyme
Lo : Maior of the honorable Citie of London."
Wright was the printer. The ballad (or another on the same subject) was
written by Richard Johnson, author of The Seven Champions of Christendom > &c.,
and is contained in his Crowne Garland of G-oulden Roses, 1612. Copies are
also in the Douce Collection, fol. 103 ; in Old Ballads, i. 132, 1723 ; in Evans's
Collection, ii. 325, 1810; and in Mackay's Songs of the London Prentices and
Trades; &c.
In Pills to purge Melancholy, iii. 40, 1707, the tune is called Turn again,
Whittington ; in Hawkins's transcripts of virginal music, The Bells of Osney ; b and
as the ballad of " Sir Richard Whittington " was to be sung to the tune of
Dainty, come tlwu to me, this may be another name for the same. A fourth
seoms to be Whit ting torts Bells ; for Ward, in The London Spy, says " he'd
rather hear an old barber ring Whittington^ s Bells upon the cittern," than all
the music-houses then afforded.
Moderate time.
E3^
Here m list I tell the praise Of worthy Whittington , Known to be in his days Thrice Mayor of London.
* J.
^U
But of poor parentage Born was he, as we hear, And, in his ten-der age, Bred up in Lanca-shire.
Kor more about Sir Richard Whittington, see Anti-
gua/ ian Repertory, ii. 343 ; Rimbault's Fly Leaves,
ii. 75; Burn's Descriptive Catalogue of London Traders 1
Tavrn and Coffee-House Tokens; &c.
b 'The bells of Osney Abbey," says Hawkins, "were
verj famous : their several names were Douce, Clement,
Aus in, Hautecter, Gabriel, and John. Near old Wind-
sor,' he adds, "is a public-house, vulgarly called The
Bells of Bosely; this house was originally built for tlie
accommodation of bargemen, and others, navigating the
river Thames between London and Oxford. It has a sign
of six bells, i.e., the bells of Osney." (History, 8vo., 615.)
I am told that the sign is now altered to The Five Bells of
Ouseley, and that the house is famous for its excellent
ale. "The great Bells of Oesney," is one of the rounds
for three voices in Deuteromelia, 1609.
518
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
JOAN'S PLACKET IS TORN.
The earliest notice I have found of this air, is in Pepys's Diary ; where, under
date of 22nd June, 1667, he speaks of a trumpeter, on board the Royal Charles,
sounding the tune of Joan's Placket is torn.
It is contained in The Dancing Master of 1686 (additional sheet), and in all
subsequent editions ; also in the ballad-operas of Achilles, The Bays' Opera, and
Love in a Riddle.
Colley Gibber's song, u When I followed a lass that was fro ward and shy,"
which was written to the tune, for Love in a Riddle, in 1729, was transferred by
Bickerstaff to Love in a Village, about thirty years later, without acknowledg-
ment of the source from which he derived it.
In the Collection of Loyal Songs, 1685 and 1694, is one entitled, " The plot
eram'd into Jone's Placket: To the tune of Jontfs Placket is torn" It is also
one of the tunes called for by " the hobnailed fellows" in The History of Robert
Powel, the Puppet-sheivman, 8vo., 1715.
As to the word " placket," in " An exact Chronologic of memorable things " in
Wit's Interpreter, 3rd edit., 1671, it is said to be " sixty-six years since maids began
to wear plackets." According to Middleton, the placket is " the open part " of a
petticoat ; and the word is not altogether obsolete, since the opening in the petti-
coats of the present day is still called " the placket hole," in contradistinction to
the pocket hole.
A very good song has been written to this tune by Charles Mackay (entited
" The Return Home ") ; but I have not 'discovered the original words.
Moderate time.
Joan's placket is torn,
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REIGN OF CHARLES II.
519
The Rev. G. R. Gleig, in his Family History of England, ii. Ill, prints a piece
of music, which, according to tradition, was " the air played by the band at
Fofcheringay Castle, while Mary, Queen of Scots, was proceeding to execution."
It is the tune of Joan's Placket, turned into a slow march ; but as Queen Mary
was executed within the castle, and there was no procession with drums and
trumpets, or music of any kind (according to all accounts), the story is not very
probable. Some of my readers may nevertheless desire to see it in that form;
and as Joan's Placket is certainly a trumpet tune, it is possible that it may have
been played outside the castle on that day.
Very slow, and sustained.
THE BAFFLED KNIGHT.
This tune is contained in Youth's Delight on the Flagelet, ninth and eleventh
edi tions. It may be in earlier editions, but I have never seen any other than the
tw<> in my possession. The date of the ninth has been cut off in binding; the
eleventh is of 1697. It is also in the ballad-opera of Silvia, or The Country
Bvrial, 8vo, 1731, but is an indifferent version.
The story of the rakish young knight outwitted by the maiden, has been
repeatedly versified. The earliest I have seen, is, " Yonder comes a courteous
520
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
Knight," already printed (i. 62). The second, entitled " The baffled Knight, or
Lady's Policy," is reprinted by Percy, and commences
" There was Knight was drunk with wine.''
The third is contained in Pills to purge Melancholy, iii. 1707, or v. 1719 ; and in
A Complete Collection of old and new English and Scotch Songs, 8vo, 1735. It
has a separate tune (see Pills), and is in stanzas of eight lines, commencing
" There was a Knight and he was young."
A copy of the fourth is in the Roxburghe Collection (i. 306), entitled "The
politick Maid : Or "A dainty new ditty, both pleasant and witty,
Wherein you may see the Maid's policie."
" To a pleasant new tune." Subscribed Rpchard] Cpimsall], and " printed fcr
Thomas Lambert, at the signe of the Horse-shoe, in Smithfield."
" There was a Knight was wine-drunk, Sing, loud whistle in the wind,
As he rode on the way, lllow merry, merry ;
And there he spied a bonny lasse Up and down in yonder dale,
Among the cocks of hay. With hey tro, nonney, nonney.
The tune here printed, belongs to the second of the above. In Silvia, the first
line, " There was a Knight was drunk with wine," is given at full length. It is
also referred to, under the title of The laffled Knight, in a black-letter ballad of
" The West Country Lawyer : Or The witty Maid's good fortune," &c., " to the
tune of The laffled Knight" (Rox. ii. 578) ; commencing
"A youthful lawyer, fine and gay, ' Good morrow, then, the lawyer cried,
Was riding unto the city, ' I prithee, where art thou going?'
Who met a damsel on the way, Quoth she, ' To yonder meadow's side,
Right beautiful, fair, and witty. My father is there a mowing,' " &c.
Moderate time.
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It was a Knight was drunk with wine, A riding a - long
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For continuation of the words, see Percy's Reliqnes of Ancient Poetry.
THE WILLOW TREE.
When I printed this tune among the National English Airs, in 1839, I was
but imperfectly acquainted with its history. Mr. Macfarren had noted down the
air from hearing an old ballad-singer in Lancashire, and could recollect but one
stanza : " this willow tree will twist,
And this willow tree will twine," &c.
REIGN OF CHARLES II. 521
These lines I have since found to form part of a ballad commencing, " I sowed
the seeds of love," which is still in print among the ball ad- venders in Seven
Dials, and was published from one of their copies in 1846, in Songs and Ballads
of the Peasantry of England, by Mr. J. H. Dixon.
I spoke of the air as one of the common ballad- tunes sung about the counties
of Derbyshire, Warwickshire, and Lancashire ; and that in a burlesque at the
Manchester Theatre, some years before, one of the fraternity of blind ballad-
singers had been imitated, chanting rhymes to the tune, with pauses at the end
of each phrase, as peculiarly characteristic of their manner. I have since learned
that the late Mrs. Honey, having caught the air from another ball ad- singer, had
introduced the ballad on the London stage, in The Loan of a Lover ; and that
the history of the words is given in Whittakers History of the Parish of
Whalky (p. 318, 4to., 1801.)
Dr. Whittaker tells us that Mrs. Fleetwood Habergham, of Habergham Hall,
Lancashire, " undone by the extravagance, and disgraced by the vices of her
husband" (who squandered his large patrimony, till, in 1689, even the mansion-
house and demesne were swallowed up by the foreclosure of a mortgage),
" soothed her sorrows by some stanzas, yet remembered among the old people of
the neighbourhood, of which the following allusions to the triumphs of her
early days, and the successive offers she had rejected, under the emblem of
flowers, are simple and not inelegant : "
" The gardener standing by, Tn June the red rose sprung,
Proffered to chuse for me But was no flower for me ;
The pink, the primrose, and the rose, I pluck'd it up, lo ! hy the stalk,
But I reins' d the three. And planted the willow tree.
The primrose I forsook The willow I now must wear,
Because it came too soon, With sorrows twin'd among,
The violet I overlook! That all the world may know
And vow'd to wait till June. I falsehood lov'd too long."
Dr. Whittaker says, " A sentimental fine lady of the present day would have
thrown her story into the shape of a novel : the good old gentlewoman's ballad is
at least the more tolerable of the two."
From the circumstances under which they were written, the words may be
dated as not long after 1689, and in all probability were written to the tune
of Come, open the door, siveet Betty (ante p. 505), which was then in the
height of its popularity. Although the traditional version consists of but one
strain, and is in common time, such metamorphose is by no m eans unusual in
airs preserved solely by tradition. The resemblance is still clearly traceable.
Another traditional version will be found in Albyn's Anthology, i. 40, fol., 1816,
or Wood's Songs of Scotland, iii. 85, 8vo., 1850.
Mr. Alexander Campbell, the editor of Albyn's Anthology, gives the following
account : " This sweetly rural and plaintive air, like many of the ancient
Border Melodies " (he did not know how far south of the border it might be
traced) " has but one part, or rather one measure. It was taken down by the
editor from the singing of Mr. Hogg" (the Ettrick Shepherd) " and his friend,
Mr. Pringle, author of the pathetic verses to which it is united;" commencing,
" I'll bid my hejfct be still."
522
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
Mr. Campbell also gives three stanzas " of the original Border ditty, which
was chanted to the melody." These were supplied by Miss M. Pringle, of Jed-
burgh. They are evidently a paraphrase of Mrs. Habergham's ballad, as the
two following will shew :
" once my thyme was young,
It fkmrish'd night and day;
But by there came a false young man,
And he stole my thyme away.
Within my garden gay,
The rose and lily grew ; [away,
But the pride o' my garden is wither'd
And it's a' grown o'er wi' rue."
The tune was not improved in transmission to the Border, as may be seen by
comparing the copy in Albyn's Anthology, or Wood's Songs of Scotland (in both
of which Mr. Thomas Pringle's song is united to it), with the Lancashire version
here printed.
The following lines were written to the air by Mr. H. F. Chorley, for the
National English Airs. They are entitled " The Widow's Song :"
OH ! leave me to dream and weep,
Or lift ye the churchyard stone,
And send me my dead, through the
twilight deep,
For I sit by my hearth alone !
They were three of the blythest fays !
But their mirth it all is done !
Oh I never could think in those glad, glad
I must sit by my hearth alone ! [days !
The spring 'mid her bloom goes by,
And the summer's glorious sun,
Ere I know there are flowers, or a bright
blue sky,
While I sit by my hearth alone !
Then leave me to dream and weep !
Or lift ye the church-yard stone :
I am weary, weary ; better sleep,
Than sit by my hearth alone !
From a variety of traditional versions, I have selected the following. The
Seven Dials copies are very corrupt, and I am informed that they are frequently
reprinted from the dictation of ballad-singers, who require a supply for sale,
instead of from earlier copies.
In modei ate time, and with simplicity.
!
sow'd the seeds of love.
When small hirds they do
REIttN OF CHARLES II.
523
My garden was planted full
Of flowers every where,
But for myself I could not choose,
The flower I held so dear.
IV [y gardener was standing by,
And he would choose for me ;
tie chose the primrose, the lily, and pink,
But those I refus'd all three.
The primrose I did reject,
Because it came too soon ;
The lily and pink I overlook'd,
And vow'd I would wait till June.
In June came the rose so red,
And that's the flower for me ;
Uut when I gather'd the rose so dear,
I gain'd but the willow tree.
Oh ! the willow tree will twist,
And the willow tree will twine ;
And would I were in the young man's arms,
That ever has this heart of mine.
My gardener, as he stood by,
He bade me take great care,
For if I gather'd the rose so red,
There groweth up a sharp thorn there.
I told him I'd take no care,
Till I did feel the smart,
And still did press the rose so dear
Till the thorn did pierce my heart.
A posy of hyssop I'll make,
No other flow'r I'll touch,
That all the world may plainly see
I love one flow'r too much.
My garden is now run wild,
When shall I plant anew ?
My bed that once was fill'd with thyme
Is all o'errun with rue.
YOUNG JEMMY.
There are two ballads on Charles the Second's natural son, the Duke of
Monmouth, that were sung to this tune, and both printed during his father's
reign, when the Duke was out of favour at court.
Of the first ballad there are two copies; one in the King's Library, Brit.
Mus., entitled "Young Jemmy: An excellent new Ballad: To an excellent new
tune" dated 1681 ; and the second in the Roxburghe Collection, ii. 140, called
"England's Darling; or, Great Britain's Joy and Hope in that noble Prince,
James, Duke of Monmouth :
Brave Monmouth, England's glory, May'st thou in thy noble father's love remain,
Hated of none but Papist and Tory, Who happily over this land doth reign.
Tune of Young Jemmy, or Philander. " a Printed by J. Wright, J. Clark,
W. Thackeray, and T. Passinger. It commences
" Young Jemmy is a lad A true and faithful English heart,
That's royally descended, Great Britain's joy and hope,
With every virtue clad, And bravely will maintain their part,
By every tongue commended ; In spite of Turk and Pope," &c.
The second ballad is entitled "Young Jemmy; or, The Princely Shepherd:
Boing a most pleasant and delightful new song :
In blest Arcadia, where each shepherd feeds
His numerous flocks, and tunes, on slender reeds,
His song of love, while the fair nymphs trip round,
The chief amongst 'em was Young Jemmy found :
For he with glances could enslave each heart,
But fond ambition made him to depart
The fields, to Court ; led on by such as sought
To blast his virtues, which much sorrow brought.
For Philander, see i. 280.
524 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
To a new Play-house tune, or In January last, 3 - or The Gfvwttn. 99 * Printed by P.
Brooksby, at the Golden Ball in West Smithfield (Rox. ii. 556). Commencing
" Young Jemmy was a lad A face and shape so wondrous fine,
Of royal birth and breeding, So charming every part,
With every beauty clad, That every lass upon the green
And every swain exceeding : For Jemmy had a heart," &c.
Both these ballads have been reprinted in Evans's Collection, iii. 206 and 211
(1810). The tune is in The Genteel Companion for the Recorder, 1683; in
180 Loyal Songs, 1685 and 1694; in The Village Opera, 1729; in Love and
Revenge, or The Vintner Outwitted, N.D. ; in The Bay's Opera, 1730 ; &c.
There are two others, to the tune, in 180 Loyal Songs ; the first, "Old Jemmy,
tune -of Young Jemmy" It is a counter-panegyric upon James II., when Duke of
York, by Mat. Taubman ; commencing
" Old Jemmy is a lad
Right lawfully descended."
The second, "A new song on the arrival of Prince George [of Denmark], and
his intermarriage with the Lady Anne," afterwards Queen Anne ; commencing
" Prince George at last is come ;
Fill every man his bumper," &c.
In the Roxburghe Collection, ii. 504, is " The West-country Nymph ; or, The
loyal Maid of Bristol," &c., to the tune of Young Jemmy; beginning
" Come, all you maidens fair, In Bristol city fair
And listen to my ditty ; There liv'd a damsel pretty."
In the early part of the last century, the Pretender was called " Young
Jemmy," and the tune became a favorite with the Jacobites. " I never can pass
through Cranbourn Alley, but I am astonished at the remissness or lenity of the
magistrates in suffering the Pretender's interest to be carried on and promoted in
so public and shameful a manner as it there is. Here a fellow stands eternally
bawling out his Pye-Corner pastorals in behalf of Dear Jemmy, Lovely Jemmy,
&c. I have been credibly informed, this-man has actually in his pocket a com-
mission, under the Pretender's great seal, constituting him his Ballad-singer in
Ordinary in Great Britain ; and that his ditties are so well worded, that they
often poison the minds of many well-meaning people : that this person is not
more industrious with his tongue in behalf of his master, than others are, at the
same time, busy with their fingers among the audience ; and the monies collected
in this manner are most of those mighty remittances the Post-boy so frequently
boasts of being made to the Chevalier." From " A View of London and West-
minster : or, The Town Spy. Containing an account of the different customs,
tempers, manners, policies, &c., of the PEOPLE in the several most noted Parishes
within the Bills of Mortality, respectively," &c. By a German Gentleman.
2nd. edit., 8vo., 1725.
For In January last, see Index. " The Gowlin is a yellow flower
" The Gowlin is called "a new Playhouse tune " in the That S rows u P on the P lains '
ballad, the last stanza of which explains that- Which oftentimes i gathered
By nymphs and shepherd swains, &c.
REIGN OF CHARLES II.
525
~^' Moderate time.
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.Young Jem-my is a lad That's roy - al - ly des - cend - ed, With
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A true and faithful English heart, Great Britain's joy and hope, And
4
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brave -ly will main - tain their part, In spite of Turk and Pope.
^
MY LODGING IT IS ON THE COLD GROUND.
This is a song in the play of The Rivals (an alteration of Fletcher's Two
Noble Kinsmen), the performance of which Pepys witnessed twice, "at the
Duke's house," in the year 1664; but which acquired its principal celebrity in
or about 1667, when Moll Davis and Better ton performed the principal
characters. Downes, who was prompter at the theatre, from 1662 to 1706, thus
speaks of it: " The Rivals, a play, wrote by Sir William Davenant: having
a very fine interlude in it, of vocal and instrumental music, mixt with very
diverting dances. . . . All the women's parts admirably acted; chiefly Cel[an]ia,
a shepherdess, being mad for love; especially in singing several wild and mad
son^s, My lodging it is on the cold ground, &c. She performed that so charm-
ingly, that, not long after, it raised her from her bed on the cold ground to a Bed
Royal." Roscius Anglicanus, edit. 1781, p. 32. Downes does not here mention
the representative of Celania, but the name of Mrs. Davis is found in the printed
526
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
list of characters in the play, 4to., 1668. Charles II. took her off the stage, and
had a daughter by her, named Mary Tudor, who was married to Francis, second
Earl of Derwentwater.
The original air of My lodging is on the cold ground was composed by
Matthew Lock, and is included among the violin tunes at the end of The Dancing
Master of 1665 ; also in MusicKs Delight on the Cithren, 1666, and in Apollo's
Banquet, 1669. In the two former it is entitled " On the cold ground ; " in the
latter, " I prithee, love, turn to me."
The following is Matthew Lock's air :
Rather slow.
3EES
r
My lodging it is on the cold ground, And oh ! ve-ry hard is my
^
Mr-ft
fare, But that which troubles me most, is The un - kind-ness of my dear.
=J V I 1 I
E?
m i
i
Yet still I cry, "O turn, Love," And "Prithee, Love, turn to me,
For
3=H=mJ
S
I'll crown thee with a garland of straw, then,
And I'll marry thee with a rush ring;
My frozen hopes shall thaw, then,
And merrily we will sing :
O turn to me, my dear love,
And prithee, love, turn to me,
For thou art the man that alone canst
Procure my liberty.
But if thou wilt harden thy heart still
And be deaf to my pitiful moan,
Then I must endure the smart still,
And tumble in straw alone ;
Yet still I cry, O turn love,
And prithee, love, turn to me,
For thou art the man that alone art
The cause of my misery.
REIGN OF CHARLES II.
527
The popularity of the song was very great, and may be traced in an uninter-
rupted stream from that time to the present. The words were reprinted in
Mer-y Drollery Complete, Part II., 1670, under the title of " Phillis, her
Lamentation;" and in the same, a parody on it, called "Women's Delight."
Another parody, " My lodging is on the cold boards," is in Howard's play, All
Mistaken, 1672. Then the original in The New Academy of Compliments, 1694,
1718, &c. ; in Vocal Music, or the Songster's Companion, 8vo., 1775 ; in Johnson's
Lottery Song Book, N.D. ; and fifty others. It was lengthened into a ballad, and
became equally popular in that form. A copy is in the Roxburghe Collection,
ii. 423, "printed by and for W. 0[nley] for A. Melbourne], and sold by C.
Bates, at the Sun and Bible in Pye Corner." Onley and Milbourne were ballad-
printers in the reign of Charles II. Bates I believe to be somewhat later. It is
as follows :
" The slighted Maid ; or The pining Lover.
With sighs and moans she doth intreat her dear,
Whilst he seems to be deaf and will not hear ;
At length his frozen heart begins to melt,
Being moved with the passion she had felt.
To the tune of I prithee, Love, turn \to~\ me" &c. "Licensed and enter'd
according: to order."
Was ever maiden so scorned
By one that she loved so dear ?
Long time have I sighed and mourned,
And still my love will not hear :
O turn to me, my own dear heart,
And I prithee, love, turn to me,
For thou art the lad I long for,
And, alas ! what remedy ?
My lodging is on the cold ground,
And very hard is my fare ;
B'.it that which troubles me most, is
The unkindness of my dear :
turn to me, my own dear heart,
And I prithee, love, turn to me,
For thou art the lad I long for,
And, alas ! what remedy ?
stop not thine ear to the wailings
Of me, a poor harmless maid ;
"You know we are subject to failings,
Blind Cupid hath me betrayed :
And now I must cry, turn, love,
And I prithee, love, turn to me,
For thou art the man that alone art
The cause of my misery.
How canst thou be so hard-hearted,
And cruel to me alone ;
If ever we should be parted,
Then all my delight is gone :
But ever I cry, turn, love,
And I prithee, love, turn to me,
For thou art the man that alone art
The cause of my misery.
I'll make thee pretty sweet posies,
And constant I ever will prove ;
I'll strew thy chamber with roses,
And all to delight my love :
Then turn to me, my own dear heart,
And I prithee, love, turn to me,
For thou art the man that alone canst
Procure my liberty.
I'll do my endeavour to please thee
By making thy bed full soft ;
Of all thy sorrows I'll ease thee
By kissing thy lips full oft :
Then turn to me, my own dear heart,
And I prithee, love, turn to me,
For thou art the man that alone canst
Procure my liberty.
528
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
But thou wilt harden thy heart, still,
And be deaf to my pitiful moan,
So, I must endure the smart, still,
And tumble in straw, all alone :
Whilst still I cry, turn, love,
And I prithee, love, turn to me,
For thou art the man that alone art
The cause of my misery.
If that thou still dost disdain me,
I never will love thee more ;
Thy cruelty never shall pain me,
For I'll have another in store :
But still I cry, turn, love,
And I prithee, love, turn to me,
For thou art the man that alone art
The cause of my misery.
By hearing her pitiful clamour,
The passion of love he felt;
He could no longer disdain her,
His frozen heart it did melt :
For ever she cried, turn, love,
And I prithee, love, turn to me,
For thou art the man that alone canst
Procure my liberty.
He said, My love, I will please thee,
Thy heaviness grieves me sore,
But let not sorrow now seize thee,
I never will grieve thee more ;
I'll turn to thee, my own kind heart,
Dear love, I'll turn to thee,
For I am the man that now am come
To procure thy liberty.
I'll crown thee with a garland of straw, then,
And marry thee with a rush ring ;
My frozen heart it will thaw then,
And merrily we will sing :
But ever she cried, turn, love,
And I prithee, love, turn to me,
For thou art the man that alone canst
Release my misery.
Most lovingly he embrac'd her,
And call'd her his heart's delight ;
And close by his side he plac'd her,
All sorrows were vanquished quite.
And now she, for joy, cried, Turn, love,
And I prithee, love, turn to me,
For thou art the man that alone hast
Released me of misery.
The following ballads, sung to the tune, are in the Roxburghe Collection :
Vol. ii. 88. " The Courteous Health ; or, The Merry Boys of the Times.
He that loves sack, doth nothing lack, He that denies Bacchus' supplies
If he but loyal be ; Shews mere hypocrisy."
" To a new tune, Come, boys, Jill us a bumper, or My lodging is on the cold ground; 79
with the burden, " A brimmer to the King," and beginning
" Come, boys, fill us a bumper, She's grown sick of a Rumper,
We'll make the nation roar ; That sticks on the old score," &c.
Vol. in. 196. " The Old Man's Complaint ; or, The unequal matcht Couple,"
&c. "Tune of I prithee, love, turn to me"
Vol. ii. 520. " Wit bought at a dear rate," &c. " To the tune of Turn,
love, I prethee, love, turn to me." Printed by F. Coles ; and begins
" If all the world my mind did know,
I would not care a pin," &c.
Vol. iii. 144. "The faithful Lover's Farewell; or, Private News from Chat-
ham," &c., " To the tune of My lodging is on the cold ground." Printed for
Sarah Tyus, at the Three Bibles, on London Bridge." Begins
" As I in a meadow was walking, I heard two lovers a-talking,
Some two or three weeks ago, And trampling to and fro," &c.
REIGN OF CHARLES II. 529
There are many more in other collections of ballads ; as, for instance, in that
formed by Mr. Halliwell (see Nos. 106, 118, 161, and 335, in the printed
catalogue) ; but enough have already been quoted to prove the extreme and long-
continued popularity of My lodging is on the cold ground.
The only difficulty is in ascertaining the precise time when Matthew Lock's
tune was discarded, and that now universally known took its place. I have
not found the former in print after 1670, but it may have been included
in some of the editions of Apollo's Banquet, between 1670 and 1690, which
I have never seen. The air now known is printed on all the broadsides, with
music, of the last century ; and it is possible that the ballad-singers may have
altogether discarded Matthew Lock's tune, and adopted another, a liberty sub-
sequently taken with Carey's air to his ballad of Sally in our Alley, although
quite as melodious as that which they substitued. There is a song to the tune of
My Ivdging it is on the cold ground in The Rape of Helen, 1737, but that ballad-
opera is printed without music. The words and music are printed in Vocal Music,
or Tie Songster's Companion, 8vo., 1775, and it has been a stock-song in print
from that time. At the commencement of the present century it acquired a new
impetus of popularity from the singing of Mrs. Harrison, at Harrison and
Knyvett's concerts ; and subsequently from that of Mrs. Salmon. About this
time it was claimed as an Irish tune by the late T. Moore including it among his
Irish Melodies. I believe there is no ground whatever for calling it Irish. The
late Edward Bunting, who was engaged to note down all the airs played by the
harpers of the different provinces of Ireland, when they were collected together
at Belfast, in 1792, and who devoted a long life to the collection of Irish music,
distinctly assured me that he did not believe it to be Irish, that no one of the
harpors played the tune, and that it had no Irish character. I do not think a
higher authority as to Irish music could be quoted, or one more tenacious of any
infringement upon airs which he considered to be of truly Irish origin. I might
add the testimony of Dr. Crotch, Messrs. Ayrton, T. Cooke, J. Augustine Wade,
and others, both Irish and English, who have expressed similar opinions to that
of Bunting ; but, in fact, there is a total want of evidence, external and internal,
of it* being an Irish tune. About the same time that Moore claimed it, it was
printed in Dublin, in Clifton's " British Melodies."
. The curious will find a copy of the song for the voice, with accompaniment for
the virginals or harpsichord, reprinted from one of the broadsides, in Nat.
Eng. Airs.
In Ritson's Scottish Songs, i. 187, 1794, there is a song written by J. D.,
commencing, " I lo'e na a laddie but ane, to the tune of Happy Dick Dawson"
The tune there printed is a version of My lodging is on the cold ground, curtailed
in each alternate phrase to suit words in a shorter metre. I have not looked
for r,he song of Happy Dick Dawson, but believe that " I lo'e na a laddie
but ane" was first printed to that tune in 1790, in the third volume of
Johnson's Scots' Musical Museum.
530
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
The following is the popular air, with the words usually sung.
Slowly and gracefully.
My lodging, it is on the cold ground, And oh ! ve-ry hard is my
fare, But that which grieves me more, love, Is the cold-ness of my dear.
*
to
Br^'tJ iE-*^ia
Yet still he cried, O turn, love, I pray thee, love, turn to
thou art the on
ores.
ly girl, love, That art a - dor'd by
, . l&^V
m
With a garland of straw I'll crown thee, love, But, if thou wilt harden tin 7 heart, love,
I'll marry thee with a rush ring ; ^And be deaf to my pitiful moan,
Thy frozen heart shall melt with love, Then I must endure the smart, love,
So, merrily I shall sing. And tumble in straw, all alone.
Yet still he cried, &c. Yet still he cried, &c.
LAY TOE BENT TO THE BONNY BllOOM.
This ballad and tune are contained in the second volume of the early editions
of Pitts to purge Melancholy , and in the fourth volume of the later.
Copies of the ballad are also in the Pepys (iii. 19), Douce (169), and Halli-
well Collections (No. 253). It is entitled " A noble riddle wisely expounded;
or, The Maid's answer to the Knight's three questions :
She, with her excellent wit and civil carriage,
Won a young knight to joyn with her in marriage.
This gallant couple now are man and wife,
And she with him doth lead a pleasant life."
" The tune is Lay the lent to the bonny broom."
REIGN OF CHAKLES II.
531
The copy in the Halliwell Collection was printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, and
W. Grilbertson, who all commenced publishing before the Restoration. It is in
W. Thackeray's list of ballads, and the copy in the Douce Collection was printed
by Thomas Norris, at the Looking-glass on London Bridge.
I imagine it to be of earlier date than any copy I have found, and probably
deri/ed from a minstrel ballad. The late T. Dibdin informed me that the tune
was introduced as a duet in O'Keefe's comedy, The Highland. Reel, in 1788.
I have not seen that copy.
There was a Lady in the North Country, Lay the bent to the bon - ny
b A '
1 m u |_3
1
f:
* * '
?
s
^J
p
bro'>m, And she had love - ly daughters three, Fa, la, la, la, la la, la la, re
t
There was a knight of noble worth,
Lay the bent, fyc.
Who also lived in the North, Fa, la, 8fC.
This knight, of courage stout and brave,
A wife he did desire to have ;
He knocked at the lady's gate,
One evening when it was late.
The eldest sister let him in,
And pinn'd the door with a silver pin.
The knight offers to marry the youngest, if her wit should equal her good
loot s ; and, to test it, proposes to ask three questions.
" iiind sir, in love, O then," quoth she,
" Tell me what your three questions be ?
" (3 what is longer than the way,
Oi 1 what is deeper than the sea,
Or what is louder than a horn,
Or what is sharper than a thorn,
O what is greener than the grass,
Or what is worse than woman was ? "
" O love is longer than the way,
And hell is deeper than the sea,
And thunder's louder than the horn,
And hunger's sharper than a thorn ;
And poison's greener than the grass,
And the Devil's worse than woman was.'
When she these questions answered had,
The knight became exceeding glad. . .
And after, as 'tis verified,
He made of her his lovely bride.
So now, fair maidens all, adieu,
This song I dedicate to you,
And wish that you may constant prove.
Unto the man that vou do love.
COME, LASSES AND LADS.
The earliest copy I have found of this still popular ballad is in Westminster
Drollery, Part II., 1672, entitled "The rural dance about the May-pole: The
tune, the first Figure-Dance at Mr. Young's Ball, in May '71." It is also
printed with the tune (but the words much altered and abbreviated) in Pills to
purge Melancholy, vol. i. of the early editions, and vol. iii. of 1719. The copy
in Tixall Poetry, 4to., 1813, taken from an old manuscript, contains a final
stanza not to be found in Westmmster Drollery.
2 M
532
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
The tune has passed through all the processes of alteration that tradition so
frequently engenders, till at last it has become difficult to trace any resemblance
between the present version and the primitive one. The following is the tune as
printed in the Pills :
Lightly and cheerfully.
You lass -es and lads, Take leave of your Dads, And a - way to the May-pole
J . -^ J 1 _ . .
iii&fi:
-8-
j i
MjaJ
r e ' r-r
*-^*
hie, There ev'-ry he Has got him a she, And the minstrels standing by.
S3
f
rr
For Wil - ly has got his Gill, And John-ny has his Joan, To
r -r: ^7
jig it, jig it, jig it, jig it, jig it up and down.
The following is the traditional tune. The words are in several other collec-
tions besides those above-mentioned, and are still in print in Seven Dials.
Lightly and cheerfully.
Come, Lass -es and Lads, get leave of your Dads, And a-way to the May -pole
* *-
hie, For ev'-ry fair has a sweetheart there, And the fiddler's standing by.
-rr **-FT ^ ^ *
REIGN OP CHARLES II.
For Wil-ly shall dance with Jane, And John-ny has got his Joan,
w=j:
To
trip it, trip it, trip it, trip it, Trip it up and down,
To
trip it, trip it, trip it, trip it, Trip it up and down
Strike up, says Wat, agreed, says Matt,
And I prithee, fiddler, play ;
Content, says Hodge, and so says Madge,
For this is a holiday.
Then every lad did doff
His hat unto his lass,
And every girl did curtsey, curtsey,
Curtsey on the grass.
Begin, says Hal, aye, aye, says Mall,
We'll lead up Packington's Pound ;
No DO, says Noll, and so says Doll,
We'll first have Sellinger's Round.
Then every man began
To foot it round about,
And every girl did jet it, jet it,
Jet it in and out.
You re out, says Dick, not I, says Nick,
'Twas the fiddler play'd it wrong ;
'Tis true, says Hugh, and so says Sue,
And so says every one.
The fiddler then began
To play the tune again,
And every girl did trip it, trip it,
Trip it to the men.
Let's kiss, says Jane, content, says Nan,
And so says every she ;
Hov many ? says Batt, why three, says Matt,
For that's a maiden's fee.
The men, instead of three,
Did give them half a score ;
The maids in kindness, kindness, kindness,
Gave 'em as many more.
Then, after an hour, they went to a bow'r,
And play'd for ale and cakes ;
And kisses too, until they were due
The lasses held the stakes.
The girls did then begin
To quarrel with the men,
And bade them take their kisses back,
And give them their own again.
Now there they did stay the whole of the day,
And tired the fiddler quite
With dancing and play, without any pay,
From morning until night.
They told the fiddler then
They'd pay him for his play,
And each a twopence, twopence, twopence,
Gave him, and went away.
[Good night, says Harry, good night, says
Good night, says Dolly to John ; [Mary ;
Good night, s.ays Sue, to her sweetheart,
Good night, says every one. [Hugh ;
Some walk'd, and some did run ;
Some loiter'd on the way,
And bound themselves by kisses twelve
To meet the next holiday.]
584 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
ROGER DE COVEHLEY.
This still popular dance-tune, from which Addison borrowed the name of Sir
Roger de Coverley in The Spectator, is contained in Play ford's Division Violin,
1685 ; in The Dancing Master of 1696, and all subsequent editions ; also in
many ballad-operas, and more recent publications.
In a manuscript now in my possession, which was written about the commence-
ment of the last century, but contains tunes of a much earlier date, it is entitled
" Old Roger of Ooverlay for evermore, a Lancashire Hornpipe ; " in The Dancing
Master, " Roger of Coverly ;" in the ballad-opera of Polly, " Roger a Coverly ; "
in Robin Hood, "Roger de Coverly;" and in Tom Jones, 1769, "Sir Roger
de Coverley."
There is a song with the burden, " brave Roger a Cauverly," in Pills to
purge Melancholy, vi. 31 ; and which I suppose should be to the tune, although
four bars of Old Sir Simon the King are printed above it. Both are in J time.
It commences very abruptly, as if it were a fragment, instead of an entire song
" She met with a countryman But as for John of the Green,
In the middle of all the Green ; I care not a pin for he.
And Peggy was his delight, Bulls and bears, and lions and dragons,
And good sport was to be seen. And O brave Roger a Cauverly ;
But ever she cried, Brave Roger, Pigging and n^ig gins, pints and Jlagons,
I'll drink a whole glass to thee ; O brave Roger a Cauverly"
These J tunes are not found in the earliest editions of The Dancing Master,
perhaps, because they were originally jig and hornpipe tunes, rather than country-
dances. I cannot, in any other way, account for not having met with early copies
of tunes to such well-known ballads as Arthur a Bradley (so frequently mentioned
by Elizabethan dramatists), which, from the metre of the words, must have been
sung to an air in J time, and in all probability to this.
According to Ralph Thoresby's MS. account of the family of Calverley, of Cal-
verley, in Yorkshire, the dance of Roger de Coverley was named after a knight
who lived in the reign of Richard I. Thoresby was born in 1658. The following
extract from his manuscript was communicated to Notes and Queries, i. 369, by
Sir Walter Calverley Trevelyan, Bart. : "Roger, so named from the Archbishop
[of York], was a person of renowned hospitality, since, at this day, the obsolete
known tune of Roger a Calverley is referred to him, who, according to the custom
of those times, kept his Minstrels, from that, their office, named Harpers, which
became a family, and possessed lands till late years in and about Calverley, called
to this day Harpersroids and Harper's Spring"
Another correspondent of Notes and Queries, vi. 37, says that in Virginia, U.S.,
the dance is named My Aunt Margery, but I find no English authority for
the change.
It is mentioned as one which " the hob-nailed fellows " call for, in The History
of Robert Poivel, the Puppet- showman, 8vo., 1715. "Upon the prelude's being
ended, each party fell to bawling and calling for particular tunes. The hob-
nail'd fellows, whose breeches and lungs seem'd to be of the same leather, cried
out for Cheshire Rounds, Roger of Coverly, Joan's Placket, and Northern Nancy"
Finally, it is known in Scotland under the name of " The Mautman comes on
REIGN OF CHARLES IT.
535
Monday," from a song, which, on the authority of The Tea Talk Miscellany,
was written by Allan Ramsay.
As this old favorite has again come into fashion (not only here, but also at
foreign Courts), a description of the figure, as now danced, may interest some of
my readers.
FIGURE OF ROGER DE COVERLEY. The couples stand as in other English country-
dances, the gentlemen facing the ladies. First The gentleman at the top and the
lady at the bottom of the dance advance to the centre, and turning round each other
(giving the right hand) return to places (four bars of music). Second The same
figure repeated, but giving the left hand (four bars). Third The same couple
advance a third time, the gentleman bowing and the lady courtesying, retire (four
bars). The fourth is a chain figure, the first gentleman gives his right hand to his
partner and left to^the second lady, right to partner and left to third lady, and so on,
tho lady, in like manner, at the same time, giving her right hand to her partner and
left to every gentleman, till they reach the bottom of the dance. They then hold up
th3ir hands joined, and every couple pass under them (beginning with the second
geitleman and his partner) and turning outwards, i.e., gentlemen to the right and
ladies to the left, return to places. Then the figure recommences with the second
gentleman (now at the top) and the first lady, now at the bottom of the dance.
iNi^M-^gBim^y^i
536
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
THE NORTHUMBERLAND BAGPIPES.
In the Roxburghe Collection, ii. 363, and Bagford, 643, m. 10, p. 159, is the
ballad of " The merry Bagpipes : the pleasant pastime betwixt a jolly shepherd
and a country damsel on a Midsummer's day in the morning. To the tune of
March, boys, &c." Licensed according to order, and printed by G. Bates, next
door to the Crown Tavern in West Smithfield. I have not found the song of
" March, boys ;" but this ballad is printed, with the tune, in Pills to purge Me-
lancholy, ii. 136, 1700, under the title of The Northumberland Bagpipes. It is
here arranged with the bagpipe drone.
-^ uneerjutiy.
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A shep -herd sat him un-der a thorn, He pull'd out his pipe, andbe
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- gan for to play, It was on a Midsummer day in the morn, For ho-nor of that
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A dit - ty he did
To thee, to thee, derry,
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goes to the tune of Cater Bor-dee, And
thee, to thee, derry, derry to thee, And
chant a - long, That
derry to thee, To
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And whilst this harmony he did make,
A country damsel from the town,
A basket on her arm she had,
A gathering rushes on the down :
Her bongrace was of wended straw,
From the sun's beams her face to free,
And thus she began, when she him saw,
If thou wilt pipe, lad, I'll dance to thee, &c.
WHEN BUSY FAME.
Busy Fame was a popular tune at the end of the reign of Charles II., and
continued in favour for at least half a century. Several ballads that were to be
sung to it, have already been mentioned ; the following are in the Halliwell
Collection :
REIQN OF CHARLES II.
537
No. 47. " Coridon and Parthenia, the languishing shepherd made happy, or
faithful love rewarded, being a most pleasant and delectable new Play Song :
Here mournful love is turn'd into delight,
To this we a chaste amorist invite."
To the tune of When lusy Fame. Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright,
J. Clarke, W. Thackery, and T. Passinger. Also, another copy, printed by
P. Brooksby.
ISo. 180. u The Life of Love," &c. " To the tune of The fair one let me in,
or Busy Fame." Printed for P. Brooksby, &c.
3To. 349. "The trepanned Virgin; or, Good Advice to Maidens," &c. "Tune,
When lusie Fame." Printed for Coles, Vere, Wright, &c.
The song, " When busy Fame," is in Playford's Choice Ayres, v. 19, 1684 ;
in Pills to purge Melancholy, iii. 249, 1707, and v. 164, 1719. It was composed
by T. Farmer.
-^ Moderate
time.
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When
bu - sy Fame o'er
all the plain, V
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rung, And on their oat -en pipes each swain Her match-less beau-ty sung;
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Che en - vious nymphs were forc'd 10 yield, She had the sweet - est face: No. .
1
e;n - u - lous dis - putes were held But for the se - cond place.
Young Coridon, whose stubborn heart
No beauty e'er could move,
That'smil'd at Cupid's bow and dart,
And brav'd the God of JLove,
^ I
Would view this nymph, and pleas'd, at first,
Such silent charms to see,
With wonder gaz'd, then sigh'd, and urs'd
His curiosity.
538
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
BARBARA ALLEN.
Under this name, the English and Scotch have each a ballad, with their
respective tunes. Both ballads are printed in Percy's Reliques of Ancient
Poetry, and a comparison will shew that there is no similarity in the music.
It has been suggested that for " Scarlet " town, the scene of the ballad,
we should read "Carlisle" town. Some of the later printed copies have
"Beading" town.
In the Douce Collection there is a different ballad under this title, a New-
castle edition, without date.
Goldsmith, in his third Essay, says, " The music of the finest singer is
dissonance to what I felt when our old dairy-maid sung me into tears with
Johnny Armstrong's Last Crood Night, or The Cruelty of Barbara Allen"
A black-letter copy of this ballad, in the Roxburgh e Collection, ii. 25, is
entitled " Barbara Allen's Cruelty ; or, The Young Man's Tragedy : With
Barbara Allen's Lamentation for her unkindness to her Lover and herself. To
the tune of Barbara Allen" Printed for P. Brooksby, J. Deacon, J. Blare,
and J. Back.
The following is the version printed by Percy : the tune from tradition, and
scarcely one is better known :
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In Scarlet Town, where I was born, There was a fair maid dwellin', Made
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ev'-ry youth cry,
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Well-a-day? Her
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name was Bar - bara
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Al- len.
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All in the merry month of May,
When green buds they were swellin',
Young Jemmy Grove on his death-bed lay,
For love of Barbara Allen.
He sent his man unto her then,
To the town where she was dwellin' ;
You must come to my master dear,
Giff your name be Barbara Allen.
For death is printed on his face,
And o'er his heart is stealin' ;
Then haste away to comfort him,
O lovely Barbara Allen.
Though death be printed on his face,
And o'er his heart is stealin',
Yet little better shall he be
For bonny Barbara Allen.
So slowly, slowly, she came up,
And slowly she came nigh him ;
And all she said, when there she came,
Young man, I think you're dying.
He turn'd his face unto her straight,
With deadly sorrow sighing ;
O lovely maid, come pity me,
I'm on my death-bed lying.
REIGN OF CHARLES II.
539
If on your death-bed you do lie,
What needs the tale you're telliri' ;
I cannot keep you from your death ;
Farewell, said Barbara Allen.
He turn'd his face unto the wall,
As deadly pangs he fell in :
Adieu ! adieu ! adieu to you all,
Adieu to Barbara Allen.
As she was walking o'er the fields,
She heard the bell a knellin' ;
And every stroke did seem to say,
Unworthy Barbara Allen,
She turn'd. her body round about,
And spied the corpse a coming ;
Lay down, lay down the corpse, she said,
That I may look upon him.
With scornful eye she looked down,
Her cheek with laughter swellin' ;
Whilst all her friends cried out amain,
Unworthy Barbara Allen.
When he was dead, and laid in grave,
Her heart was struck with sorrow,
O mother, mother, make my bed,
For I shall die to-morrow.
Hard-hearted creature him to slight,
Who loved me so dearly :
O that I had been more kind to him
When he was alive and near me !
She, on her death-bed as she lay,
Begg'd to be buried by him ;
And sore repented of the day,
That she did e'er deny him.
Farewell, she said, ye virgins all,
And shun the fault I fell in :
Henceforth take warning by the fall
Of cruel Barbara Allen.
O BRAVE ARTHUR OF BRADLEY.
" Sing him Arthur of Bradley, or, / am the Duke of Norfolk."
Wycheiiey's Gentleman's Dancing Master, 1673.
When I first read the ballad of " Arthur of Bradley," it struck me imme-
diately that it must have been sung to the tune of Roger de Coverley. The words
ran so glibly to the tune, that I could scarcely forbear to hum it over to them.
I si ill retain the impression, and the probabilities are strengthened by having traced
Ro<jer de Coverley to an earlier date, and as a Lancashire hornpipe. In the
ballad, Arthur calls upon the piper to play " a hornpipe, that went fine on the
bagpipe," and no other dance is mentioned at the wedding. There are many
places called Bradley, in England, and, among them, one in Yorkshire, another
in Lancashire, and a third in Derbyshire.
All the black-letter copies of the ballad of " Arthur of Bradley" that I have
noticed, direct it to be sung "to a pleasant new tune ;" so that, unless a copy
of Roger de Coverley can be found under the name of " Arthur of Bradley," or
" Saw ye not Pierce the Piper ?" the identification will remain doubtful. One
thing, however, is certain, that " Arthur of Bradley" must have been sung to
a tune in | time, and to one that consisted of twelve bars. time is common to
English jig and hornpipe tunes.
'* Arthur-a-Bradley" is referred to by Ben Jonson, Dekker, and other Eliza-
bethan dramatists; in Braithwait's Strappado for the Divell ; and in the ballad of
" Eobin Hood's birth, breeding, valour, and marriage." See also Gifford's notes
to his edition of Ben Jonson, iv., 401, 410, and 533.
The ballad is printed in " An Antidote against Melancholy : made up in pills,
compounded of witty ballads, jovial songs, and merry catches," 1661, and in
Ritson's " Robin Hood," ii. 210. Ritson retains the title of the black-letter
'copies, " A Merry Wedding ; or, brave Arthur of Bradley."
540
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
The first stanza is here adapted to a second version of Roger de Ooverley.
Gaily.
See ye not Pierce the piper, His cheeks as big as a mitre, A piping among the swains That
da
1
dance on yonder plains? Where Tib and Tim do trip it, And youths to the hornpip 6 n ip i* With
ev 1 - ry one his carriage To go to yon -der marriage, Not one should stay be-hind, But
'=Ss==
f=
=P
go with Arthur of Bradley, Oh ! fine Arthur ol Brad-ley, Arthur of Brad- ley,
J
There are two other ballads of " Arthur-a-Bradley," one commencing, " All
in the merry month of May" (included in the third volume of the Roxburghe
Ballads), and the second, " Come, neighbours, and listen awhile," reprinted in
" Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England," by J. H.
Dixon. Both are evidently of later date than the above.
There may have been a fourth ballad, for Gayton, in his Festivous Notes on
Don Quixote, 4to., 1654, p. 141, says, " ? Tis not alwaies sure that 'tis merry in
hatt when beards wag all, for these men's beards wagg'd as fast as they could tug
'em, but mov'd no mirth at all : They were verifying that song of
' Heigh, brave Arthur o' Bradley,
A beard without haire looks madly.' "
The last line is not to be found in any of the above-mentioned.
REIGN OF CHARLES II. 541
UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE.
This ballad, and the tune (noted down in common time, and without bars), are
found among Ashmole's Manuscripts, at Oxford (36 and 37, fol. 194, b).
There are two versions in The Dancing Master of 1686, the first in common,
and the second in 5 time : the first entitled Under the Greenwood Tree, the
second (in the additional sheet), Oh! how they frisk it, or Leather Apron.
I have only observed one other copy in common time, and that is in The
Dancing Master of 1690. In all later editions, and in Pills to purge Melancholy,
it is in time, which the words seem to require.
The popularity of the tune may be inferred from the great number of ballad-
operas in which it was introduced. Among these may be reckoned The Devil to
pay, The Jovial Crew, The Village Opera, The Cobblers' Opera, The Mad Captain,
Tlie Court Legacy, The Devil of a Duke, and The Woman of Taste.
Ashmole's copy of the words differs somewhat from the black-letter ballads ;
aod, if written at the time when he is stated to have been intent upon music,
soon after his father's death, in 1634, it may be from forty to fifty years older
than any printed copy that I have observed, the earliest of which was published
by Brooksby. a
Ashmole noted down the tune without bars, and bars were in general use in the
reign of Charles II., but not so in that of Charles I. b The words in his copy
begin thus :
" In summer time, when leaves grow green, There's Jeffry and Tom, there's Ursula and
And birds sit on the tree, With Roger and bonny Bettee ; [John,
Let all the lords say what they can, Oh ! how they do firk it, caper and jerk it,
There's none so merry as we. Under the Greenwood Tree.
The ballads of " King Edward the Fourth and the Tanner of Tamworth," and
" Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar," commence precisely as in Ashmole's copy,
ai id, the metre of all being the same, it appears very probable that they were sung
to one tune, and therefore, that this air may yet be traced back to the reign of
Elizabeth. Another ancient ballad, " Robin Hood and the Monk," begins in a
similar manner, and the eighth line corresponds with the burden of this ballad.
The tune is sometimes entitled Caper and firk it (i.e., caper and frisk it) as in
" The fair Maid of Islington ; or, The London Vintner over-reach'd : To the tune
of Bellinger's Round, or Caper and firk it." (Bagford 643 m. 10, p. 113.)
Commencing
" There was a fair Maid of Islington, And she would to fair London go,
As I heard many tell, Fine apples and pears to sell," &c.
In is included among the tunes of Christmas Carols in " A Cabinet of Choice
J ewels ; or, The Christian's Joy and Gladness, set forth in sundry pleasant new
a The earliest date that I have noted to any ballad century ; but, in England, each part was usually printed
p inted by Brooksby, is April 12, 1677, when Sir Roger separately, and then bars were thought unnecessary.
L Estrange licensed to him, "A Kind Husband; or, The Dancing Masters of 1651 and 1652, being for one
Advice for Married Men. To the tune of The Ladiet' instrument, have no bars ; but the wore in the moral play,
Lelight, or Never let a man take heavily." A copy in The four Elements, printed by Rastell (to which Dr.
trie Rawlinson Collection of " Olde Balades," Bodleian Dibdin assigns the date of 1510), is barred. So far as
I ibrary. I have observed, all music in the ordinary notation, even
b Bars were used to music in score in the fifteenth for one voice or one instrument, was barred after 1660.
542
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
Christmas Carols," 1688. These are " A carol for Christmas Day, to the tune of
Over hills and hir/h mountains ; for Christmas Day at night, to the tune of My
life and my death ; for St. Stephen's Day, to the tune of cruel bloody fate ; for
New Year's Day, to the tune of Caper and jerk it ; and for Twelfth Night, to the
tune of Mother, Roger.* A copy of this curious collection is in Wood's Library,
at Oxford.
"A delightful song in honour of Whitsontide, to the tune of Caper and
jerk it" is contained in Canterbury Tales, &c., printed in Bow Churchyard. It
commences " Now Whitson holidays they are come,
Each lass shall find her mate."
There are many more ballads to the tune. The following eight stanzas are
selected from the original, which is very long, and in two parts. In the black-
letter copies (two of which are in the Douce Collection), it is entitled, "The
West-country Delight; or, Hey for Zommersetshire,*' &c. ; in the Pills, " The
Countryman's Delight."
^Cheerfully.
J
Sum - mer time, when flow'rs do spring, And birds sit on each
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tree, Let Lords and Knights say what they will, There's none so
merry as
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Will and Moll, with
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-tee, Oh ! how they do jerk it, Ca - per and firk it, Under the greenwood
Of these tunes, " My life and my death are both in with his kisses," is to be found in Pills to purge Melan-
your power" is the composition of Mr. William Turner choly, and in The Dancing Master ; and the remaining are
(see Theater of Music, Book i., 1685) ; " O Mother, Roger contained in this collection.
REIGN OF CHARLES II.
tree. In Sum - mer time when flow'rs do spring, And birds sit on each
tree, Let Lords and Knights say what they will, There's none so merry as we.
m
m
i:
O;ir music is a little pipe,
That can so sweetly play ;
We hire Old Hal from Whitsuntide,
Till latter Lammas-day ;
On sabbath days and holy-days,
After ev'ning prayer comes he ; a
And then do we skip it, caper and trip it,
Under the green-wood tree.
In summer time, &c.
Come, play us Adam and Eve, says Dick ;
What's that ? says little Pipe ;
The Beginning of the World? quoth Dick ;
For we are dancing-ripe ;
Is't that you call ? then have at all
He play'd with merry glee ;
O then did we skip it, caper and trip it,
Under the green- wood tree.
In summer time, &c.
O er hills and dales, to Whitsun-ales,
We dance a merry fytte ;
When Susan sweet with John doth meet,
She gives him Hit for Hit
From head to foot she holds him to 't,
And jumps as high as he ;
Oa how they spring it, flounce and fling it,
Under the green-wood tree.
In summer time, &c.
M/ lord's son must not be forgot,
So full of merry jest ;
Ho laughs to see the girls so hot,
A.nd jumps it with the rest.
Bishop Earle, in his Microcosmographie, describing
a "Pain countryfellow, or downright clown," says,
" Sun lay he esteems a day to make merry in, and
thinks- a hag-pipe as essential to it as evening prayer.
He \v tlks very solemnly after service, with his hands
coupl* d hehind him, and censures " ( i. e., criti-
cises) "the dancing of his parish." Burton, in his
No time is spent with more content,
In camp, in court, or city,
So long as we skip it, frisk it and trip it,
Under the green-wood tree.
In summer time, &c.
We oft go to Sir William's ground,
And a rich old cub is he ;
And there we dance around, around,
But never a penny we see.
From thence we get to Somerset,
Where men are frolic and free,
And there do we skip it, frisk it and trip it,
Under the green-wood tree.
In summer time, &c.
We fear no plots of Jews or Scots,
For we are jolly swains :
With plow and cow, and barley-mow,
We busy all our brains ;
No city cares, nor merchant's fears
Of wreck or piracy ;
Therefore we skip it, frisk it and trip it,
Under the green-wood tree.
In summer time, &c.
On meads and lawns we trip like fauns,
Like fillies, kids and lambs ;
We have no twinge to make us cringe,
Or crinkle in the hams ;
When the day is spent, with one consent,
Again we all agree,
To caper it and skip it, trample and trip it,
Under the green-wood tree.
In summer time, &c.
Anatomy of Melancholy, says: " Young lasses are never
better pleased, than when, as upon a holiday, after even-
song, they may meet their sweet-hearts, and dance about
a May-pole, or in a Town-green, under a shady elm."
b For The Beginning of the World, or Sellenger's Round,
see ante vol. i., p. 69.
544 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
An answer to the preceding Somersetshire ballad will be found in the Douce
Collection, and to be sung to the same tune. It is " Hey for our town, but a fig
for a Zommersetshire ; " and commences
" In winter time, when flow'rs do fade, Let lords and ladies play at cards,
And birds forsake the tree, There's none so merry as we," &c.
The burden is " Under the holly-bush tree."
THE OLD LANCASHIRE HORNPIPE.
' There is a Lancashire Hornpipe in my throat ; hark ! how it tickles, with doodle, doodle, doodle."
Ford's The Witch of Edmonton.
At page 12 of an edition of The Dancing Master, the exact reference to which
I have mislaid (perhaps in one of the volumes of Walsh's Compleat Country
Dancing Master), this tune is entitled The Old Lancashire Hornpipe. In Apollo's
Banquet, 1669, 1690, and 1693, it is called A Jigg, and has twelve divisions or
variations. There were hornpipes of various descriptions; some being called
jig-hornpipes, or hornpipe-jigs, others bagpipe-hornpipes. One of the former
will be found in the first edition of Apollo's Banquet ; and several of the latter
in " An extraordinary Collection of pleasant and merry humours ; containing
Hornpipes, Jiggs, North-Country Frisks, Morrises, Bagpipe-Hornpipes, and
Rounds,"* &c. The hornpipe-jig in Apollo's Banquet (although not so barred)
is in 2 time. About 1697, Thomas Marsden published a " Collection of original
Lancashire Hornpipes ; " but I have not been able to find a copy in any library,
public or private.
In Vanbrugh's comedy of ^Esop, act v., the trumpets were to sound a melan-
choly air till -ZEsop appeared, and then the violins and hautboys to " strike up a
Lancashire Hornpipe."
The instrument called the hornpipe, from which the dance derived its name,
was in use in England as late as the reign of Charles II. , and perhaps later.
It is, in all probability, the same as the pib-corn (which means horn-pipe) said to
be still in use in Wales. The pipe of the latter is of hollow wood, with holes for
the fingers at regulated distances, and with horn at each end ; a small piece for
the mouth, and a larger for the escape of the sound.
Chaucer mentions the hornpipe as a Cornish instrument,
"Controve he would, and foule faile, In Floites made he discordaunce,
With Hornpipes of Cornwaile. And in his musike with misehannce," &c.
Romaunt of the JRose.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the counties most famous for the
dance of the hornpipe were Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, and Lancashire. Ben
Jonson, in his Love's Welcome at Welbeck, says,
" Your firk-hum jerk-hum to a dance, To wonder at the hornpipes here
Shall fetch the fiddles out of France, Of Nottingham and Derbyshire ; "
There were three publications under this title, which printed by John Young, at the Dolphin and Crown, at the
I have not had the opportunity to compare. The first, West end of St. Paul's Church, without date. A copy of
mentioned by Bagford as having been printed by Daniel the last is in the possession of Mr. George Daniel, of
Wright in 1710 (small oblong of 35 pages) ; the second in Canonbury.
the British Museum, a. 10.5, dated 1720; and the third
REIGN OF CHARLES II. 545
and he gives a song to the hornpipe tune, which was to be accompanied on the
bagpipe.
Under an engraving of Hale, the Derbyshire piper, by Sutton Nicholls, are the
music of his hornpipe and the following lines :
" Before three monarchs I my skill did prove
Of many lords and knights had I the love ;
There's no musician e'er did know the peer
Of HALE THE PIPER in fair Darby -shire.
The consequence in part you here may know,
Pray look upon his Hornpipe here below."
Quoted from Daniel's Merry England.
In " Old Meg of Herefordshire for a Mayd Marian, and Hereford town for a
Morris Dance," 1609, the especial credit for hornpipes is given to Lancashire.
" The Court of Kings for stately Measures ; the city for light heels and nimble
footing ; the country for shuffling dances " [jigs ?] ; " Western men for gambols ;
Middlesex men for tricks above ground; Essex men for the Hay; Lancashire
for Hornpipes; Worcestershire for bagpipes; but Herefordshire for a Morris-
dance, puts down not only all Kent, but very near (if one had line enough to
measure it) three quarters of Christendom."
Michael Drayton, in his Polyolbion, also says
" The neat Lancastrian nymphs, for beauty that excell,
That, for the Hornpipe round, do bear away the bell ; "
and again " Ye lustie lasses, then, in Lancashire that dwell,
For beautie that are sayd to beare away the bell,
Your countries Hornpipe yee so minsingly that tread," &c.
Hornpipes were not then danced only by one or two persons, as now ; Drayton,
above, speaks of the " hornpipe round." So George Peele, in his Arraignment
of Paris, 1584
" The round in a circle our sportance must be,
Hold hands in a hornpipe, all gallant in glee ; "
and again Drayton
" So blyth and bonny now the lads and lasses are,
And ever as anon the bagpipe up doth blow,
Cast in a gallant Round, about the hearth they goe,
And at each pause they kisse : was never seene such rule,
In any place but heere, at Boon -fire, or at Yeule ;
And every village smokes at Wakes with lusty cheere,
Then, Hey, they cry, for Lun, and Hey for Lancashire."
Spenser, also, in his Pastorals, mentions the hornpipe as a dance for many
persons " Before them yode a lustie tabrere,
That to the many a home pype playd,
Whereto they dauncen, eche one with his mayd ;
To see these folks make so jovisaunce,
Made my heart after the pype to daunce."
I suppose the manner of dancing the hornpipe in Lancashire differed, in some
way, from that of other counties ; because in one of the bills of public enter-
546
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
tainments quoted by Mr. Daniel, in his Merry England, of about the year 1691,
John Sleepe advertises " a young man that dances a hornpipe, the Lancaster way,
extraordinary finely."
Lancashire was equally famous for pipers and fiddlers ; for a note upon whom
I refer the reader to Gilford's Ben Jonson, v. 436 ; but Lincolnshire disputed
with Worcestershire the honor of the bagpipes. In Drayton's Blazons of the Shires,
he says " Beane-belly Lestershire, her attribute doth beare,
And bells and bagpipes next, belong to Lincolneshire ;"
and again, in his twenty-fifth Song,
" Thou, Wytham, mine own town, first water'd with my source,
As to the Eastern sea I hasten on my course,
Who sees so pleasant plains, or knows of fairer scene ?
Whose swains in shepherd's gray, and girls in Lincoln green,
Whilst some the rings of bells, and some the bagpipes ply,
Dance many a merry Round, and many a Hydegy."
A variety of notices about Lincolnshire bagpipes have been collected by the
commentators on Shakespeare. The bagpipe was quite a rustic instrument, and
generally held in contempt. " It seems you never heard good music, that com-
mend a bagpipe," is a figurative speech in Middleton's Any thing for a quiet life;
and again, in The Witch, " 'Twill be a worthy work to put down all these pipers ;
'tis a pity there should not be a statute against them, as against fiddlers." Ben
Jonson says, " A rhyme to him is worse than cheese or a bagpipe," &c., &c.
The contemptuous similes to the bagpipe by dramatists, such as, " that snuffles
in the nose like a decayed bagpipe," are extremely numerous."
Cheerfully.
B
^J^U^f
s
1
^
ETT^
1
^
REIGN OF CHAKLES II. 547
THE WAITS.
Waits, or Waights, seem originally to have been a kind of musical watchmen,
who, in order to prove their watchfulness, were required to pipe at stated hours of
the night. The hautboy was also called a waight, perhaps from being the pipe
upon which they commonly played, but there are early instances of the use of
other pipes by Waits, as in a passage quoted by Mr. Sandys, from the old lay of
Richard Cceur-de-Lion :
" A wayte ther com in a kernel (battlement),
And pypyd a moot in a flagel."
This " flagel" was probably a pipe of which the " flagelet" (or, as now spelled,
"flageolet"), is the diminutive.
Mr. Sandys remarks that " in the time of Henry the Third, Simon le Wayte
held a virgate of land at Buckingham, in Northamptonshire, on the tenure of
being castle-wayte, or watch,'; and the same custom was observed in other places."
(Christmas-Tide, p. 83.) Mr. E. Smirke, who quotes many such cases, in
his Observations on Wait Service mentioned in the Liber Winton, or Winchester
Domesday, adds that, in the earldom of Cornwall, they who held their lands by
the tenure of keeping watch at the castle-gate of Launceston, " owed suit to a
special court, in the nature of a court baron, called the ' Curia vigilise,' ' Curia de
gayte,' or i Wayternesse Court,' of which many records are still extant in the
offices of the Exchequer, and among the records of the Duchy." (Archaeological
Journal, No. 12, Dec. 1846.)
The duties of a wayte are thus defined in the Liber niger Domus Regis (pub-
lished, with additions, by Stephen Batman), which contains an account of the mu-
sicians, and others, retained in the household establishment of King Edward IV. :
" A WAYTE, that nightely from Mychelmas to Shreve Thorsdaye pipethe watche
within this courte fowere tymes ; in the Somere nightes three tymes, and makethe
ban gayte at every chambere doare and offyce, as well for feare of pyckeres and pillers.
He eatethe in the halle with Mynstrelles, and takethe lyverey at nighte a loafe, a
galone of ale, and for Somere nightes two candles [of] pich, and a bushel of coles ;
and for Wintere nightes halfe a loafe of bread, a galone of ale, four candles pich, a
bushel coles : Daylye whilst he is presente in Court for his wages, in Cheque-roale,
allowed \\i\d. ob. or else \i\d. by the discresshon of the Steuarde and Tressorore, and
that after his cominge and deservinge : Also cloathinge with the Houshold Yeomen
or Mynstrelles lyke to the wages that he takethe : An he be sycke, he taketh two
loa^ es, two messe of great meate, one galone ale. Also he partetli with the houshold
of general gyfts, and hathe his beddinge carried by the Comptrolleres assignment ;
and. under this yeoman, to be a Groome-Waitere. Yf he can excuse the yeoman in
his absence, then he takethe rewarde, clotheinge, meat, and all other things lyke to
otht r Grooms of Houshold. Also this Yeoman- Waighte, at the making of Knightes
of the Bathe, for his attendance upon them by nighte-time, in watchinge in the
Chappelle, hathe to his fee all the watchinge clothing that the Knight shall wear
upon him."
Three waytes were included among the minstrels in the service of Edward III.
The musicians of towns and corporations were also termed waits. The city of
London had its waits, who attended the Lord Mayor on public occasions, such as
2 N
548 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
Lord Mayor's Day, and on public feasts and great dinners. They are described
as having blue gowns, red sleeves, and caps, every one having his silver collar
about his neck.
In 1599, Morley thus speaks of them in his dedication of his Consort Lessons,
for six instruments, to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen : " But, as the ancient
custom of this most honorable and renowned city hath been ever to retain and
maintain excellent and expert musicians, to adorn your Honour's favours, feasts,
and solemn meetings, to those, your Lordship's Wayts, I recommend the same,
to your servants' careful and skilful handling."
When Charles II., on his restoration, passed through the city of London to
Whitehall, he was, according to Ogilby, entertained with music from a band of
eight waits at Crutched Friars, of six at Aldgate, and six in Leadenhall Street.
Roger North, who lived in his reign, says : " As for corporation and mercenary
musick, it was chiefly flabile" (i. e., for wind instruments), " and the professors,
from going about the streets in a morning, to wake folks, were and are yet called
Waits, quasi Wakes." I doubt this derivation, for the meaning of the word seems
rather to be " to watch" than " to awaken" (in the glossary to Tyrwhitt's
Chaucer, we find " Wake, v. Sax., To watch," and " Waite, v. Fr., To watch") ;
but the passage proves that waits then went about the streets at unseasonable
hours, as they now do, within a few days of Christmas, in order to earn a
Christmas-box.
In Davenant's Unfortunate Lovers, Rampiro says :
" the ficllers do
So often waken me with their grating gridirons
And good morrows, I cannot sleep for them."
John Cleland, in his " Essay on the Origin of the Musical Waits at Christmas,"
appended to his " Way to things by words and to words by things," 8vo., 1766,
says : " But at the ancient Yule, or Christmas time especially, the dreariness of
the weather, the length of the night, would naturally require something extra-
ordinary to wake and rouse men from their natural inclination to rest, and from
a warm bed at that hour. The summons, then, to the Wakes of that season were
given by music, going the rounds of invitation to the mirth or festivals which were
awaiting them. In this there was some propriety some object ; but where is
there any in such a solemn piece of banter as that of music going the rounds and
disturbing people in vain ? For surely any meditation to be thereby excited on
the holiness of the ensuing day could hardly be of great avail, in a bed between
sleeping and waking. But such is the power of custom to perpetuate absurdities."
In nearly all the books of household expenditure in early times, we find dona-
tions to waits of the towns through which the traveller passed. In those of Sir
John Howard, of Henry VII. , and of Henry VIII. , there are payments to the
waits of London, Colchester, Dover, Canterbury, Dartford, Coventry, Northampton,
and others. Will. Kemp, in his celebrated Morris-dance from London to Norwich,
says that few cities have waits like those of Norwich, and none better ; and that,
besides their excellency in wind instruments, their rare cunning on the viol and
violin, they had admirable voices, every one of them being able to serve as a
REIGN OF CHARLES II.
549
chorister in any cathedral church. One Richard Reede, a wait of Cambridge, is
mentioned by Mr. Sandys, as having received 20s. for his attendance at a
gentleman's mansion during the Christmas of 1574.
Some of the tunes which the waits of different towns played, are contained in
The Dancing Master of 1665 (among the violin tunes at the end), and others in
Apollo's Banquet, 1669.
The York Waits seem to have chosen a hornpipe tune, which was printed in
broadsides, with words by Mr. Durden. From these the following are selected, as
descriptive of the custom in that city, about the end of the 17th century :
" In a winter's moraine' To find fViP nlpasant r!Kr
a winter s morning,
Long before the dawning,
Ere the cock did crow,
Or stars their light withdraw,
Wak'd by a hornpipe pretty,
Play'd along York city,
By th' help of o'ernight's bottle,
Damon made this ditty, ....
In a winter's night,
By moon or L^nthorn light,
Through hail, rain, frost, or snow,
Their rounds the music go ;
Clad each in frieze or blanket
(For either heav'n be thanked),
Lin'd with wine a quart,
Or ale a double tankard.
Burglars scud away,
And bar guests dare not stay,
Of claret, snoring sots
Dream o'er their pipes and pots,
To find the pleasant Cliff,
That plays the Rigadoon.
* * # #
Candles, four in the pound,
Lead up the jolly Round,
Whilst cornet shrill i' th' middle
Marches, and merry fiddle,
Curtal with deep hum, hum,
Cries, we corne, we come, come,
And theorbo loudly answers,
Thrum, thrum, thrum, thrum, thrum.
But, their fingers frost-nipt,
So many notes are o'erslipt,
That you'd take sometimes
The Waits for the Minster chimes :
Then, Sirs, to hear their music
Would make both me and you sick,
And much more to hear a roopy fiddler call
(With voice, as Moll would cry,
'' Come, shrimps or cockles buy"),
Till their brisk helpmates wake 'em, " Past three, fair frosty morn,
Hoping music will make 'em Good morrow, my masters all."
The following was composed by Jeremiah Savile, and is on the last page of
PLtyford's Musical Companion, 1673, entitled THE WAITS:
/
Fa la la la la la la la, Fa la la la la la la la, Fa la
la la la la lal la, Fa la la la, Fa lal la, fa lal la, fa lal la la la
550
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC,
The following is called The Waits in The Dancing Master of 1665, and London
Waits in Apollo s Banquet, 1663 :
LONDON WAITS.
Smoothly and slowly.
3_
^
3EE3
Past three o* clock, and a cold fros - ty morn - ing ; Past three o'
Ettlii=ai==i
clock, good mor-row, masters all.
Si
Slowly.
COLCHESTER WAITS, from Apollo's Banquet, 1669.
N J J s
m - . >> m . m ^ ^m
iJfcte^^=U f ^~~[|~EZCr_
_^nn i i i i
m
REIGN OF CHARLES II.
CHESTER WAITS, from Walsh's Compleat Country Dancing Master, iii. 36.
Moderate time.
551
g I If
t rff
Other tunes of the Waits might be added, as Worksop Waites, from Musical
MSS., No. 610, Brit. Mus. ; York Waits, from the broadsides ; Bristol Waits,
from Apollo's Banquet, &c. ; but the preceding four specimens will probably be
thought sufficient.
AN OLD WOMAN POOR AND BLIND.
This is one of the ballads that were printed by W. Thackeray, in the reign of
Charles II., and subsequently by Play ford and his successors, in all the editions
of Pills to purge Melancholy, with the tune.
There are several other ballads to the air in the Pills, and among them, one on
The Cries of London, beginning, " Come, buy my greens and flowers fine ; " and
a second, The crafty Cracks of East Smithfield. The latter has the burden of
JTm plundered of all my gold,
The tune was introduced into several of the ballad-operas, such as The Village
Opera, 1729, and The Fashionable Lady, or Harlequins Opera, 1730 ; sometimes
in minor, sometimes in a major key.
In the Bagford Collection of Ballads, are the following :
" The toothless Bride," &c., " to the tune of An old woman poor and Hind."
" The Deptford Plumb Cake ; or, The Four Merry Wives. Tune, An old
won an poor and blind."
In A Pill to purge State Melancholy, v. ii., 1718, "Here's a health to great
Eugene ; " a song on Prince Eugene's routing the Turks, to the same air.
The following is " A Dialogue between Jack and his Mother. Tune of Old
loortan poor and blind;" copies of which are in the Roxburghe and other
collections.
552
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
Jack met his mo - ther all a - lone, To whom he did smil - ing
Iff- ^ I
say
I'll go and vi - sit bux - om Joan, Be-cause it is ho - li - day;
f?=5^
\ si s
J m
d fi-m
r r P i*
S 1 i* r
H
i r
n
1 *J
r u
Ca
J
J J J J
J
L 1^ L a
.
And, be - ing in my
J-,-8 : *^ ,
Sunday clothes, I hope she'll like me well: If
=-
-r - H
r E
* E
-t-
-fidH teH
Joan be kind, My heart my mind
her I will free - ly
tell. 1
" Go to her, Jack, with all my heart,
And, when she is made thy spouse,
With half my goods I'll freely part,
My wethers and good milch cows ;
My geese, my ducks, my cocks, my hens,
My waggons, my ploughs, my teams,
'Cause you declare in love you are,
And must have a wife, it seems."
So soon as this discourse was done.
Without any more dispute,
Jack to his chamber straight did run,
And put on his leathern suit ;
His broad-brimm'd hat and ribbon red :
Now, when he was thus array 'd,
Himself he view'd, and did conclude
That he was a brisk young blade.
Then he away to Joan did ride,
And, when he came there, did cry,
" Sweet jewel, wilt thou be my bride,
My honey, my sweet piggesnie? "
But buxom Joan began to frown,
And said he was much too free ;
She would not such a home-bred clown,
Her husband should ever be.
" Why, what's the matter? " Jack replied,
Without any more ado ;
" I'd have you know, if hence I go,
I can have as good as you.
There's Doll, the shepherd's daughter dear,
And Katy of high degree,
Who has at least three mark a year,
They're ready to die for me."
REIGN OP CHARLES II. 553
With that he went to take his leave, Then Joan, in merry humour, smil'd,
I Jut, just as he turn'd aside, And taking him round the waist,
Joan stept and caught him by the sleeve, Said, " Prithee, John, be reconcil'd,
" I was but in jest," she cried. It was but a word in haste :
" What makes you be in so much haste, A kind and virtuous wife I'll prove,
If me thou art come to woo? I'll honour and love thee, too."
Wt must not part, thou hast my heart, " Why then," quoth he, " I here agree
1 '11 marry with-none but you." To marry with none but you."
GIVE EAR TO A FROLICSOME DITTY ; OB, THE RANT.
A black-letter copy of this ballad, in the possession of Mr. Payne Collieit, is
entitled, " The jolly Gentleman's frolick ; or, The City Ramble : being an account
of a young Gallant, who wager' d to pass any of the Watches without giving them
an answer ; but, being stopp'd by the Constable of Cripplegate, was sent to the
Counter ; afterwards had before my Lord Mayor, and was clear'd by the
intercession of my Lord Mayor's daughter : To a pleasant new tune."
A second ballad, in the Bagford Collection, is named " The Ranting Rambler ;
or, a young Gentleman's frolick thro' the City by night," &c. " To a pleasant
new tune, called The Rant, Dal derra, rara."
These are different ballads on the same subject, and to the same tune, the first
" printed for C. Bates, at the Sun and Bible in Guiltspur St. ;" the second by
Brooksby, Deacon, Blare, and Back.
There are twenty stanzas in the former, of which a few are here printed with
the music. The second has been republished in " Songs of the London Prentices
and Trades," by C. Mackay. 8vo, 1841. It commences thus:
" I pray now attend to this ditty, 'Tis of a young spark in the City,
A merry and frolicsome song, By night he went ranting along ;
The Rant, dal derra, ra rara" &c.
A third ballad is in the Roxburghe Collection, ii. 359, entitled " Mark Noble's
frolick," &c. " To the tune of The New Rant."
The tune is in one of the editions of Apollo's Banquet, entitled TJie City
Ratable, and in many ballad operas. Among the last may be cited The Beggars 9
Opera, Don Quixote in England, The Sturdy Beggars, The Wanton Jesuit, and
The Court Legacy.
In The Beggars'' Opera, it is called " Have you heard of a frolicsome ditty ?"
and the words adapted are :
" How happy could I be with either, But/whilst you thus teaze me together,
Were t'other dear charmer away ; To neither a word will I say,
But, tol de rol," dec.
About fifty years later, we find it quoted in Ritson's Bishoprich Garland, or
Durham Minstrel, as the tune of a song of " The Hare-skin ;" commencing :
" Come hither, attend to my ditty, And, if you'll be silent a minute,
All you that delight in a gun, Til tell you a rare piece of fun.
Fal, lal," &c.
And Mr. J. H. Dixon prints a ballad entitled " Saddle to rags," which is still
sun^ in the North of England, to the same air. The last will be found in Ballads
and Songs of the Peasantry of England, 8vo, 1846. It is the old Btory of the
554
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
farmer who, being overtaken by a highwayman while on his road to pay his rent,
pretends that his money is concealed in his saddle ; the highwayman demanding
it, the farmer throws the saddle over the hedge, and the thief scrambles after it,
leaving his horse behind. The opportunity of exchange is not lost upon the far-
mer, who rides away with the highwayman's horse, and all his recently-acquired
booty.
The Rant is a dance of which I can give no account. It seems to have been a
rustic dance of the jig kind. In Mrs Centlivre's Comedy, The Platonick Lady,
1707, where the dancing-master proposes to dance a Courant with Mrs. Dowdy,
she, supposing him to mean a Rant, answers, " Ay, a Rant with all my heart ; "
but when he " leads her about," she says : " Hy, hy, do you call this dancing? ads
heartlikins, in my thoughts 'tis plain walking : I'll shew you one of our country
dances ; play me a Jig." [Dances an awkward Jiy.~\
Caper. " dear, madam, you'll quite spoil your steps."
Mrs. D. " Don't tell me that I was counted one of the best dancers in the
parish, zo I was."
Mrs. Peeper. " Ay, round a Maypole."
Cheerfully.
Give ear to a fro-licsome dit-ty, Of one who a wa -ger would lay, He'd
But dal de-ra, ra-ra, dal da-ra, &c.
pass ev - ry watch in the ci - ty, And ne - ver a word would he say,
" Stand ! stand ! " says the bellman,
" The constable now come before,
And if a just story you tell, man,
I'll light you home to your own door.
This is a very late season,
Which surely no honest men keep,
And therefore it is but just reason
That you in the Compter should sleep."
The constable, on the next day, sir,
This comical matter to clear,
The gentleman hurried away, sir,
Before my Lord Mayor to appear.
" My Lord, give ear to my story,
While I the truth do relate,
The gentleman standing before you
Was seiz'd by me at Cripplegate.
I nothing could hear but his singing,
Wherefore in the Compter he lay,
And therefore this morning I bring him
To hear what your Lordship will say." . .
O then bespoke my Lord's daughter,
And for him did thus intercede,
" Dear father, you'll hear that, hereafter,
. This is but a wager indeed." ....
" Well, daughter, 1 grant your petition,
The gentleman home may repair ;
But yet, 'tis on this condition,
Of paying my officers there." ....
Thus seeing he might be released,
If he his fees did but pay,
He then was very well pleased,
And so he went singing away.
Dal derra, rara, &c.
REIGN OF CHARLES II.
555
The following tune, which has much the same character as The Rant, is con-
tained in the second and subsequent editions of The Dancing-Master, either as
Winifred's Knot, or Open the door to three.
CUPID'S TREPAN.
This was a very popular ballad tune, and it acquired a variety of names from
the different ballads that were sung to it at different periods. I have not,
however, observed any of these to have been issued by printers earlier than those
of tho reign of Charles II. (Thackeray, Coles, &c.), but there are many extant
of later date.
Among the various names of the tune, may be cited, Cupid's Trappan; Up
the green Forest; Bonny, bonny bird; Brave Boys ; The Twitcher ; A Damsel
Tm told; and I have left the world as the world found me.
Tho following ballads were sung to it :
" Cupid's Trappan, or, The Scorner scorn'd, or, The Willow turn'd into car-
nation : described in The Ranting Resolution of a forsaken maid. To a pleasant
new tune now all in fashion" It commences :
" Onca did I love a bonny brave bird, Up the green forest, and down the green fo-
And thought he had been all my own,
But he lov'd another far better than me,
And has taken his flight and is flown,
Brave Boys.
And has taken his flight and is flown.
There are many copies of this ballad, and, among them, two will be found in the
Douco Collection, one of which is entitled, " Cupid's Trappan, or, Up the green
Forest," &c.
There was quite a ballad- contest between the sexes, sung to this air, for in
answer to the above we have, firstly, " A young man put to his shifts, or, The
Ranting Young Man's Resolution," &c., to the tune of Cupid's Trappan (Rox., ii.
548, and Douce, 262,) commencing
"Of late did I hear a young damsel complain,
And rail much against a young man,
His cause and his state I'll now vindicate,
And hold battle with Cupid's Trappan, Brave Boys,
And hold battle with Cupid? s Trappan.
Then came " The Plowman's art of wooing" (Rox., ii. 260) :
" The brisk young Ploughman doth believe,
If he were put to trial,
There's not a maid in all the Shire
Could give him the denial."
Like one much distressed in mind, [rest,
I hoopt and I hoopt, and I flung up my
hood, [Brave Boys.
But my bonny bird I could not find,
But my bonny bird I could notflnd."
556 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
Tune of Cupid's Tmppan. He commences thus :
" I am a young man that do follow the plough,
But of late I have found out an art,
And can, when I please, with abundance of ease,
Deprive any maid of her heart, Brave Boys, &c.
In rejoinder to this, came " The Milkmaid's Resolution " (Rox., ii. 347) :
" Let young men prate of what they please,
'Cause women have been kind,
They'll find no more such fools as these,
To please each apish mind."
Tune, Cupid* s Trappan ; commencing:
" Of late I did hear a young man domineer,
And vapour of what he could do,
But I think he knew how to manage the plough,
Far better than maidens to woo, Brave Boys, &c.
The tune is found in The Devil to pay ; in The Female Parson, or The Beau in
the Suds ; TJie Fashionable Lady, or Harlequin's Opera ; Love and Revenge, or
The Vintner outwitted ; in Flora, and other ballad operas. It was also printed on
broadsides to a song called The Twitcher, sung by Mr. Pack at the Lincoln's Inn
Theatre, commencing, " A Damsel I'm told." In some copies, the tune consists
of but eight bars, as I printed it in National English Airs (p. 68 of the music) ,
in others of eleven ; when of eight bars, the burden " Brave Boys," and the
repetition of the last line, are omitted, but all the ballads require them.
After the ballad operas, came a variety of other songs to be sung to it, of which
I will only quote three stanzas of one which was in great favour in the last cen-
tury, and is still occasionally to be heard. It is " Rural Sport," printed in The
Musical Companion, or Lady's Magazine, 8vo., 1741, and in St. Cecilia, or The
British Songster, 1782, commencing
" The hounds are all out, and the morning does peep,
Why, how now? you sluggardly sot,
How can you, how can you lie snoring a-sleep,
While we all on horseback have got, Brave Boys,
While we all on horseback have got ?
I cannot get up, for the overnight's cup
So terribly lies in my head ;
Besides, my wife cries, My dear, do not rise,
But cuddle me longer in bed, Dear Boy, &c.
Come, on with your boots, and saddle your mare,
Nor tire us with longer delay,
The cry of the hounds and the sight of the hare
Will chase all dull vapours away, Brave Boys, &c.
The following is one of the ballads that were printed by Thackeray (Rox. iii.
100) : " The patient Husband and the scolding Wife : shewing how he doth com-
plain of hard fortune he had to marry such a cross-grain' d quean as she was, and
he wishes all young men to be advised to look before they leap. To the tune
of Bonny, bonny bird." The tune from Flora, 8vo., 1729, air 13 ; the ballad
abbreviated.
REIGN OF CHARLES II.
557
Moderate time.
[Now] all you gal - lants, in ci - ty or town, Come, lis - ten a - while to my
yp -i I r
song; To you I'll re - late, in seek-ing a mate, How that I have done myself
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wrcaig, Brave
o
boys !
How that I have done myself
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wrong.
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When as I was single, as some of you are,
I was loved, like other young men,
I liv'd at my ease, and did what I pleas'd,
And the world it went well with me then.
Brave Boys, &c.
Thus bravely I liv'd without any control,
I married in haste, but at leisure repent,
That I could be so fool'd by a wife : [sour,
She'll pout and she'll lour, she'll frown and look
Then dare I not stir for my life.
Thrice happy is he that hath a good wife,
But far better off the young man
And had silver, good store, layingby; [sherry,,-,. ... .. . ...
j T i jThat settles himself to live single through life :
I could sing and be merry, drink claret and ___ ,, T . , . ,
TTT T a Would I were unmarried again !
Then who but " Sweet William " was I ?
Brave Boys, &c. Now, honest young men, you have need to
When I went to church I was led by two maids, beware,
And the music did play gallantly ; (For my part, my own ruin I've brought,)
My wife she did dance, and her spirits advance, Then of flattering damsels have a great care,
Till she skipt up and down like a fly. For wit's never dear till 'tis bought.
So, bachelors all, now my leave I will take,
Take counsel, all honest young men,
Were I thut of this quean, (you know what I mean,)
O the world would go well with me then, Brave Boys,
the world would go well with me then.
WOMAN'S WORK IS NEVER DONE.
This tune has a variety of names, derived from different ballads that were sung
to it. Among these are, The Doubting Virgin ; or Shall I, shall I ; that 2 had
nev<>r married ; Woman's work is never done : The Soldier's Departure ; and per-
haps, The Bed-making.
558
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
In the Douce Collection, p. 190, is " Shall I, shall I, no, no, no," &c. Tune
of The Doubting Virgin ; " commencing
" Pretty Betty, now come to me,
Thou hast set my heart on fire,",
and having the burden :
" Never dally, shall .1 ? shall I ?
Still she answered, No, no, no."
Whenever the tune of The Doubting Virgin is referred to in the Douce Collec-
tion, either Mr. Douce, or some prior possessor, has pencilled against it, " that
I had never married," as the other name.
" that I had never. married" is the first line of "Woman's work is never
done, or The Crown Garland of Princely Pastime and Mirth ; the Woman has
the worst of it, or her work is never done. To the tune of The Doubting Virgin."
A copy of this is in Mr. Payne Collier's Collection : it consists of seven stanzas,
the first of which is here printed with the tune :
O that I had ne-ver mar-ried, Since I
Things with me are strangely car -ried, Now I
1 . J 1 J. 1
led a care-full life;
am be - come a wife.
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In the Roxburghe Collection, i., 534, is a second ballad on the same subject :
" A WOMAN'S WORK is NEVER DONE.
Here is a song for maids to sing, Which will much pleasure to them bring.
Both in the winter and the spring : Maids may sit still, go, or run,
It is such a pretty-conceited thing, But a woman's work is never done.
To a delicate Northern tune, A Woman's work is never done, or The Bed's-making."
It commences :
" As I was wand'ring on the way, For why, quoth she, my labour's hard,
I heard a married woman say And all my pleasures are debarr'd ;
That she had lived a sorry life Both morning, evening, night and noon,
Ever since the time she was made a wife. I'm sure a woman's work is never done."
REIGN OF CHARLES II. 559
After detailing all the troubles of married life, such as, rising very early to
sweep and cleanse the house, to light the fire, make her husband's breakfast, send
the elder children to school, and tend upon the younger, " till the eleven o'clock
bell doth chime,
Then I know 'tis near upon dinner time,"
and after, to find full employment till night, and suffer disturbed rest from her
youngest child during the night, she gives the following advice to the un-
married :
" All you merry girls that hear this ditty, You see that maids live merrier lives
Both in the country and the city, Than do the best of married wives ;
Take good notice of my lines, I pray, And so, to end my song as I begun,
And make the use of the time you may. You know a woman's work is never done."
The last consists of eleven stanzas, black letter, " printed for John Andrews, at
the White Lion, in Pye Corner," and " entred according to order."
The tune is printed, under the name of Woman's work is never done, in some of
the ballad -operas, such as Momus turned Fabulist, or Vulcan's Wedding, 1729.
In the Bagford Collection, 643, m. 10, p. 99, is " The Soldier's Departure ;"
to a pleasant new tune, or The Doubting Virgin ; and at page 98, one to the tune
of The Soldier's Departure.
THE NORTHERN LASS.
Oldys, in his MS. additions to Langbaine, says, " In a collection of Poems,
called Folly in Print, or a Book of Rhimes, 8vo., 1667, p. 107, there is a ballad
called The Northern Lass. She was the Fair Maid of Doncaster, named Betty
Macldox ; who, when an hundred horsemen woo'd her, she conditioned, that he
who could dance her down, she would marry ; but she wearied them all, and they
left her a maid for her pains."
There are two songs on the Fair Maid of Doncaster, in Folly in Print ; the first,
entitled The Day Starre of the North, is preceded by the following lines :
"' A maid so fair, so chaste and good, Doth now in Doncaster reside, ^
And anciently of British blood, So fam'd of all. both far and wide."
From Haddocks, Princes of North Wales,
It consists of sixteen stanzas of four lines, and commences thus :
" This wonder of the Northern starre, The French, the Dutch, the Danish fleet,
Which shines so bright at Doncaster, If ever they should chance to meet,
Doth threaten all mankind a warre, Must all lye captives at her feet,
WTiich nobody can deny. Which nobody can deny."
The above was evidently written to the tune of Grreen Sleeves.
The second song is entitled, " The Northern Lass ; to the same person : to
a new tune." It begins thus :
" There dwells a maid in Doncaster, Her skin as sleek as Taffy's leek,
Is named Betty Haddocks, And white as t'other end on't,
No fallow deer, so plump and fair, Like snow doth melt, so soon as felt,
E'er fed in park or paddocks : Could you but once descend on't."
The " new tune " is found in Apollo's Banquet, 1669 (within two years of the
560
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
date of the book) , under the name of The Northern Lass* It is there arranged
for the violin, and seems to have been copied from some pipe- version of the air.
By the repetition of one phrase, the second part of the tune is extended to sixteen
bars (instead of eight, which the words require), but if bars twelve to nineteen,
inclusive, were omitted, it would be of the proper ballad- length. All later ver-
sions contain only eight bars in each part.
The following is the air, as it stands in Apollo's Banquet.
Very slowly and plaintively.
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The above is still popular, but in a very different form. Instead of being
a slow and plaintive air, it has been transformed into a cheerful one.
8 One of Richard Brome's Comedies, printed in 1632,
was entitled The Northern Lasse, but it does not contain
any song that could have been sung to this tune. The
music to Brome's play was composed by Dr. John
Wilson, and three, or more, of the songs are extant in
Gamble's MS., now in the possession of Dr. Rimbault.
REIGN OF CHARLES II.
561
In 1830, it was published under the title of " An old English air, arranged as
a Rondo by Samuel Wesley ; " but between 1669 and 1830 it appeared in Pills
to pirge Melancholy, in The merry Musician, and in several ballad operas.
It is printed twice in The Merry Musician ; firstly to a song by D'Urfey, and
secondly to one from the ballad-opera of Momus turned Fabulist, commencing
" At Athens in the market-place,
A learned sage mounted a stage."
In the ballad-operas it generally takes its name from D'Urfey 's song, com-
mencing
" Great Lord Frog to Lady Mouse, Croalteldom he, croalteldom ho ;
Dwelling near St. James's House, Cocky mi chart she ;
Bode to make his court one day,
In the merry month of May.
When the sun shone bright and gay, Twiddle come, tweedle twe^
The versions in the ballad-operas even the two in The Merry Musician
differ considerably, but it may suffice here to give the tune as it is now known,
and in the form in which it was published by Samuel Wesley.
^Cheerfully. , ^ _ J_
562
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
NEWMARKET.
This tune is contained in The Dancing Master of 1675, and in every subsequent
edition.
A tune called Newmarket is sometimes referred to in ballads, as " The Country
Farmer, or The buxom Virgin : to a new tune called Neivmarket, or King James*
Jigg " (Rox. ii. 77), but " To horse, brave boys, to horse " seems intended, rather
than this.
In the Travels of Cosmo, 3rd Grand Duke of Tuscany, throughout England, in
1669, he says, " Newmarket has, in the present day, been brought into repute by
the King [Charles II] , who frequents it on account of the horse-races ; having
been before celebrated only for the market for victuals, which was held there, and
was a very abundant one." When Charles visited Newmarket, Tom D'Urfey
used often to sing to him : one of his songs, which is named after the town, and
begins " The golden age is come," was printed in one of D'Urfey's collections,
and in the Pills, as having been " sung to the King there."
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REIGN OP CHARLES II. TO WILLIAM III. 563
TOBACCO IS AN INDIAN WEED.
"Musicke, tobacco, sacke, and sleepe,
The tide of sorrow backward keepe."
Marston's What you will.
The verse that has been written in the praise and dispraise of tobacco would, of
itself, fill a volume ; but, among the quantity, no piece has been more enduringly
popular than the song of Tobacco is an Indian weed. It has undergone a variety
of changes (deteriorating rather than improving it), and through these it may
be traced, from the reign of James I., down to the present day.
The earliest copy I have seen is in a manuscript volume of poetry transcribed
during James's reign, and which was most kindly lent to me by Mr. Payne
Collier. It there bears the initials of G[eorge] W[ither], now better known by
his celebrated song of " Shall I, wasting in despair,
Die because a woman's fair ?"
than by any other of his numerous productions. Wither is a very likely person
to have written such a song. A courtier poet would not have sung the praises of
smoking so obnoxious to the King as to induce him to write a Counterblaste to
Tobacco but Wither despised the servility which might have tended to his
advancement at court. " He could not refrain ," says Wood, " from shewing
himself a Presbyterian satirist." It was the publication of his Abuses stript and
whipt which caused his committal to the Marshalsea prison.
The following is Wither' s song :
" Why should we so much despise Of worldly stuff 'tis gone with a puff;
So good and wholesome an exercise Thus think, and drink tobacco.
As, early and late, to meditate ? And when the pipe is fonl within>
Thus think, and drink tobacco. Think how the fl0ul , B defird with sin __
The earthen pipe, so lily white, To purge with fire it doth require :
Shews that thou art a mortal wight ; Thus think, and drink tobacco.
Even such-and gone with a small touch: Lagt]y> the aghes left behind
Thus think, and drink tobacco. May daily gheWj to moye the mindj
And when the smoke ascends on high, That to ashes and dust return we must :
Think on the worldly vanity Thus think, and drink tobacco."
In the times of Elizabeth and James L, it was customary in England to inhale
and swallow the smoke, as Spaniards and Russians do at the present time,
hence the expression, " to drink tobacco." It was afterwards puffed out " through
the nostrils, like funnels." Ben Jonson describes a young gallant endeavouring
to acquire this accomplishment, as " sitting in a chair, holding up his snout like
a sow under an apple-tree, while th'other open'd his nostrils with a poking-stick,
to give the smoke a more free delivery."
About 1670, we find several copies of Wither's song, but the first stanza
changed in all, besides other minor variations. In Merry Drollery Complete, 1670,
it commences, u Tobacco, that is withered quite." On broadsides, bearing date
the same year, and having the tune at the top, the first line is, " The Indian
weed withered quite." The last agrees, so far, with a copy .quoted by Mr.
Bertrand Payne, from Two Broadsides against Tobacco, 1672.
2
564
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
One stanza of these intermediate versions will suffice, 51
" The Indian weed, withered quite, Shews thy decay all flesh is hay :
Green at morn, cut down at night, Thus think, then drink tobacco."
In 1699 it appeared in its present form, in the first volume of Pills to purge
Melancholy, and so remained until 1719, when D'Urfey became editor of that
collection, and transferred it, with others, to the third.
After the Pitts, it was printed with alterations, .and the addition of a very
inferior second part, by the Rev. Ralph Erskine, a minister of the Scotch
Church, in his Gospel Sonnets. This is the " Smoking Spiritualized," which is
still in print among the ballad-vendors of Seven Dials, and a copy of which is
contained in Songs and Ballads of the Peasantry of England, by J. H. Dixon,
or the new edition by Robert Bell.
In the Rev. James Plumptre's Collection of Songs (8vo., 1805), Tobacco is an
Indian weed was adapted to a more modern tune by Dr. Hague ; and about 1830,
the late Samuel Wesley again re-set the words, to music of his own composition.
The following is the tune printed on the broadsides, and in the Pills :
Smoothly-
To- bac-co'sbut an In-dian weed, Grows green at morn, cut down at eve, It
shews our de - cay, we are but clay : Think of this when you smoke to - bac-co.
The pipe, that is so lily white,
Wherein so many take delight,
Is broke with a touch man's life is such :
Think of this when you smoke tobacco.
The pipe, that is so foul within,
Shews how man's soul is stain 'd with sin,
And then the fire it doth require :
Think of this when you smoke tobacco.
The ashes that are left behind
Do serve to put us all in mind
That unto dust return we must :
Think of this when you smoke tobacco.
The smoke, that does so high ascend,
Shews us man's life must have an end,
The vapour's gone man's life is done :
Think of this when you smoke tobacco.
POPULAR ROUNDS AND CATCHES.
Some account of the public meetings of music-clubs in the reign of Charles the
Second has already been given, but there were also private meetings for the
practice of part music, both vocal and instrumental, which " were extremely
fashionable with people of opulence." Hence, in The Citizen turned Gentleman,
The curious will find more on this subject in the
articles of Dr. Rimbault, Mr. Husk, Mr. Payne, and
others, in Notes and Queries, 2nd series, March 1st to
May 10th, 1856. Also in Dr. Rirabault's Little Book of
Songs and Ballads, Svo., 1851.
REIGN OF CHARLES II. TO WILLIAM III. 565
a comedy by Edward Ravenscroft, published in 1672, the citizen is told that, in
order to appear like a person of consequence, it is necessary for him " to have
a music-club once a week at his house." Glees, Rounds, and Catches were the
favorite vocal music, but the words of some of the Catches were more fitted for the
tavern than for good society. The readers of Macaulay's History will recollect
the passage in which he speaks of Judge Jeffreys singing Catches in his nightly
revels with his boon companions ; and it can scarcely be considered a digression
that one specimen should be offered, as Rounds and Catches certainly come under
the definition of Popular Music of the olden time.
Among those most in favour in the reign of Charles II. (as well as long after) ,
wero Dr. Aldrich's Hark! the bonny Ohristclmrch Bells, and Mr. Fishburn's
Fie. nay, prithee, John*
Dr. Aldrich's was composed in the quiet retirement of Oxford, about sixteen
years before he became Dean of Christchurch, and was first printed in Playford's
Musical Companion, 1673.
Although particularly unsuitable for a ballad tune, from its requiring a voice
of great compass, and from its length, it even became popular in that form.
There is scarcely one of the great collections which does not contain one or more
ballads to be sung to it. Of these I will cite but two : the first, a paean of triumph
on the execution of Lord William Russell, which, though in the vilest taste, may
be thought to possess historical interest ; and the second, on the cries of London
about the commencement of the last century, which may deserve the notice of the
local historian.
The first is " Russell's Farewell," and commences
" Oh ! the mighty innocence
Of Russell, Bedford's son."
It H printed in the 120 Loyal Sungs, by N. T[hompson], \684, and again in the
enlarged edition of 1686. It was even retained in the edition of 1694, five years
after the attainder had been reversed. 1 *
Copies of the second ballad are contained in the Roxburghe (iii. 466) and
Douce (p. 7) Collections. They commence
" Hark ! how the cries in every street
Make lanes and alleys ring."
The music of Dean Aldrich's "Catch" is still in print, and therefore the
republication becomes unnecessary. It is also contained in The Dancing Master,
and many ballad-operas.
Mr. Fishburn's " Fie, nay, prithee, John," is to depict two persons quarrelling
in a tavern, at the top of their voices, and a third endeavouring to soothe them,
each voice taking the three parts alternately, as in all Catches. It is found in
Th>>' Delightful Companion for the Recorder, 1686 ; in Apollo's Banquet, 1690 and
16! >3; and in The Dancing Master. I have not seen any printed ballads to be
sung to it, but it was frequently introduced in the ballad operas, with other words.
Tho author seems to have been a student of the Middle Temple.
Although these were commonly termed " Catches," triumphant, has been reprinted by Evans, iii., 203, 1810.
they are, strictly speaking, Rounds, as there is no catch It is entitled " Lord Russell's Farewell," -c. to the tune
in tie words of either. The latter, however, requires to of Tender hearts of London city. This is more like the
be a ;ted, like a true Catch. genuine production of the ballad-monger.
b \nother of similar character, but not so offensively
566
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
The following is printed in score, in compliance with modern custom, but surely
the old plan of placing the whole in consecutive order, as it is to be sung, is to
be preferred. The musician has the advantage of seeing the harmonies by the
score, but here the eye of the singer must wander over two or three lines back-
wards or forwards, at every two bars, to find the place.
Catches should be learnt by memory, and half acted when they are sung. The
manner of singing them has been explained at p. 482, but the second singer
commences here after the fourth bar, and the third singer after the eighth.
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THE MAN OF KENT.
In " The Essex Champion; or, The famous History of Sir Billy of Billericay
and his squire Ricardo," 1690, the following songs are mentioned: "Three
merry wives of Green-Goose Fair," " Tom a Lincoln," and " The Man of Kent."
The song of The Man of Kent is by D'Urfey, and the tune by Leveridge,
composer of The Roast Beef of Old England, Black erf d Susan, &c.
D'Urfey wrote a second song to the same air for his play of Masaniello, and
Leveridge, who was a base singer, sang it on the stage.
The latter is in praise of fishing, commencing, " Of all the world's enjoy-
ments," and has the following burden :
" Then who a jolly fisherman, a fisherman will be,
His throat must wet, just like his net,
To keep out cold at sea."
REIGN OF CHARLES II. TO WILLIAM III.
567
The tune is in The Quakers, and other ballad operas ; also in Pitts to purge
Melancholy, 2. 5. 1719, with the words. It is there entitled, " A new song,
inscribed to the brave Men of Kent, made in honour of the nobility and gentry
of that renowned and ancient county."
Some of the stanzas are still sung at social public meetings in the county of
Kent, and others have been added from time to time.
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one sur - pass, A Man of Kent is . .
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The hardy stout freeholders,
That knew the tyrant near,
In girdles, and on shoulders,
A grove of oaks did bear :
Whom when he saw in battle draw,
And thought how he might need 'em ;
He turn'd his arms, allow 'd their terms,
Complete with noble freedom.
568
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
And when by barons wrangling,
Hot faction did increase,
And vile intestine jangling
Had banished England's peace,
The men of Kent to battle went,
They fear'd no wild confusion ;
But joined with York, soon did the work,
And made a blest conclusion.
At hunting, or the race too,
They sprightly vigour shew ;
And at a female chase too,
None like a Kentish beau ;
All blest with health ; and as for wealth,
By fortune's kind embraces,
A yeoman gray shall oft outweigh
A knight in other places.
The generous, brave, and hearty,
All o'er the shire we find ;
And for the low-church party,
They're of the brightest kind :
For king and laws, they prop the cause,
Which high church has confounded ;
They love with height the moderate right,
But hate the crop-ear'd roundhead.
The promised land of blessing,
For our forefathers meant,
Is now in right possessing
For Canaan sure was Kent :
The dome at Knole, by fame enroll 'd,
The church at Canterbury,
The hops, the beer, the cherries here,
May fill a famous story.
LILLIBURLERO.
" The following rhymes," says Dr. Percy, " slight and insignificant as they
may now seem, had once a more powerful effect than either the Philippics of
Demosthenes or Cicero ; and contributed not a little towards the great revolution
in 1688. Let us hear a contemporary writer : "
" A foolish ballad was made at that time, treating the Papists, and chiefly the Irish,
in a very ridiculous manner, which had a burden, said to be Irish words, ' Lero, lero,
lilliburlero,' that made an impression on the [King's] army, that cannot he imagined
by those that saw it not. The whole army, and at last the people, both in city and
country, were singing it perpetually. And, perhaps, never had so slight a thing so
great an effect." Burnefs History of his own Times.
" It was written, or at least re-published, on the Earl of Tyrconnel's going a
second time to Ireland, in 1688. . . . Lilliburlero and Bullen-a-lah are said to have
been the words of distinction used among the Irish Papists in their massacre of
Protestants, in 1641."
In " A True Relation of the several Facts and Circumstances of the intended
Riot and Tumult on Queen Elizabeth's Birth-day" (3rd edit., 1712 a ), the author-
ship of the words is ascribed to Lord Wharton who is said to have penned it in
revenge for James II. having given the appointment of Lord Deputy of Ire-
land to Tyrconnel. "A late Viceroy [of Ireland], who has so often boasted
himself upon his talent for mischief, invention, lying, and for making a certain
Lilliburlero song ; with which, if you will believe himself, he sung a deluded prince
out of three kingdoms."
Mr. Markland, in a note to Boswell's Life of Johnson, says that, " according
to Lord Dartmouth, there was a particular expression in it, which the King
remembered he had made use of to the Earl of Dorset, from whence it was con-
Queen Elizabeth's Birthday was then kept as an Anti-
Jacobite Festival. A ballad for those occasions will be
found in the Roxburghe Coll., iii. 557, dated, in manu-
script, 1711. It is entitled, "Queen Elizabeth's Day;
or, The Downfall of the Devil, the Pope, and the Pre-
tender. To the tune of Bonny Dundee:'" commencing,
" Let's sing to the memory of glorious Queen Bess,
Who long did the hearts of her subjects possess,
And whose mighty actions did to us secure
Those many great blessings that now do endure :
For she then did lay that solid foundation
On which our religion is fix'd, in this nation ;
For Popery was put into utter disgrace,
And Protestantism set up in its place."
Five stanzas of eight lines. It is also printed in A Pill
to purge State Melancholy, 1716.
REIGN OF CHARLES II. TO WILLIAM III.
569
eluded that he was the author." I think there are very sufficient reasons for
doubting this conclusion. In the first place, the Earl of Dorset laid no claim to
it, a ad it is scarcely to be believed that the author of To all you ladies now at land
could have penned such thorough doggrel. Although poetry was not required for
the purpose, he would certainly have paid more attention to rhythm than is there
exhibited. Secondly, the ballad contains no expression that the King would have
used, which might not equally have been employed by any other person. And
thirdly, Lord Wharton being alive when the attacks in The True Relation and
other pamphlets were made upon him, we may infer that his opponents, who
freely charge him with lying, would not have omitted the falsehood of this claim,
if there had been any ground for disputing it.
" In The Examiner, and in several pamphlets of 1712," says Lord Macaulay,
" Wharton is mentioned as the author." a
The tune of Lilliburlero was printed before the time at which the words are
supposed to have been written. " In February, 1687, Tyrconnel began to rule
his native country with the powers and appointments of Lord Lieutenant, but
with the humbler title of Lord Deputy." It was against such appointment that
the ballad was levelled. The tune will be found in the second edition of The
Delightful Companion, or Choice new Lessons for the Recorder or Flute (by Robert
Carr), 1686, and in all probability in the first edition of the same book. b It
a The writing of lampoons was a favorite amusement
during the reigns of the Stuarts, when every courtier was
expec ted to handle a pen in rhyme. Passing by minor
personages, how many there are still extant which were
writti'ii by the Earl of Rochester and others upon
Charles II. ! I quote a few odd stanzas, principally from
memory:
" I am a senseless thing, with a hey,
Men call me a king, with a ho,
FOJ my luxury and ease they brought me o'er the seas,
With a hey, tronney, nonney, nonney no" . . .
"Chaste, pious, prudent Charles the Second,
The miracle of thy restoration
May like to that of quails be reckon'd,
Rain'd on the Israelitish nation :
The wish'd-for blessing, from heaven sent,
Became their curse and punishment." . . .
" Rowley too late will understand
What now he shuns to find,
That nothing's quiet in this land,
Except his careless mind." . . .
" Beyond sea he began, where such riot he ran,
That ev'ry one there did leave him,
AnI now he's come o'er, ten times worse than before,
When none but we fools would receive him." . . .
"His dogs would sit at council board,
Like judges in their furs ;
We question much which has more sense,
The master or the curs." . . .
" His father's foes he doth reward,
Preserving those that cut off's head ;
Old Cavaliers, the Crown's best guard,
He lets them starve for want of bread :
Never was any king endow'd
With so much grace and gratitude." . . .
" New upstarts, bastards, pimps, &c.,
That, locust-like, devour the land,
By shutting up the Exchequer doors,
Whither our money is trepan n'd,
Have render'd Charles's restoration
But a small blessing to the nation." . . .
" Then, Charles, beware thy brother York,
Who to thy government gives law ;
If once you fall to the old sport,
Both must away again to Bifid a,
When, 'spite of all that would restore you,
Grown wise by wrongs, we shall abhor you."
Even to Charles's face, things of this kind were occa-
sionally said, with a good motive, but such as the sterner
nature of his brother would not have suffered to be uttered
with impunity. Pepys records Tom Killegrew's having
told Charles, in the presence of Cowley the poet, that
matters were in a very ill state, but yet there was one way
to help all. "There is," said he, "a good, honest, able
man, that I could name, that if your Majesty would em-
ploy, and command to see things well executed, all things
would soon be mended : and this is one Charles Stuart, who
now spends his time employing his lips about the court, and
hath no other employment : he were the fittest man in the
world to perform it." To this Pepys adds: "This is most
true, but the King do not profit by any of this, but Jays
all aside, and remembers nothing, but to his pleasures
again ; which is a sorrowful consideration." Diary,
Dec. 8, 1666.
b I have never seen the first edition of The Delightful
Companion, neither can I trace any other copy of the
second than the one in my own possession, which came
from Gostling's, library. The second edition is professedly
"corrected," but not "enlarged;" and, as the work is
engraved on plates (not set up in type, like The Dancing
Master), the contents of the two editions are probably the
same. Lilliburlero is found about the middle of the book,
Sig. F.
570 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
appears without any name, and merely as a lesson. There are " theatre tunes,"
song tunes, airs, catches, and other compositions, in the collection, but no air that
I can trace to have been used for ballads except this. It is the only copy I have
met with that was printed before the revolution.
In 1689, Lilliburlero was included in the second part of Music's Handmaid, as
" A new Irish Tune," by " Mr. Purcell ; " in 1690, in The Dancing Master and
Apollo's Banquet ; in 1691, Purcell used it as a ground to the fifth air 'in his
opera, The Grordian Knot unttfd ; and afterwards it appeared in Pills to purge
Melancholy, and in many ballad- operas, &c.
James II. fled from England on the 23rd of December, 1688, and the ballad
printers took immediate advantage of the change of affairs. A copy of Lillibur-
lero, published in that very month, is extant in Wood's Collection of Broadsides.
The printer professes to give the " excellent new tune ;" but, instead of it, used
a block, or type, with the air of Stingo, or Oil of Barley. Nor is this a solitary
instance ; for u The Irish Lasses Letter ; or, Her earnest Request to Teague, her
dear Joy," which was also to be sung to the excellent new tune, and was printed
in the same month, has the same music. Sufficient time had not elapsed to pre-
pare the type, or to cut a new wood-block with the proper air.
In Nicholson and Burn's Westmoreland and Cumberland (4 to., 1777, i. 550),
Henry "VVharton (brother of the reputed author) is said to have " assumed the
habit of a player, and sung before the King [James II.], in the playhouse, the
famous party song of Lilliburlero" This is quoted, from Nicholson and Burn, by
Banks in his Extinct Baronage, and from Banks, in Ellis's Dover Correspondence.
It is a story that should be received with caution ; for it may be asked, what would
have become of the players who permitted, of the musicians who played, and of
Henry Wharton, who sang such a song in the presence of so unforgiving a
monarch as James ?
As to the authorship of the tune, it is distinctly ascribed to Henry Purcell in
Music's Handmaid. The only question is whether he took the first four bars from
a Somersetshire song, " In Taunton Dean che were bore and bred," the words of
which are evidently as old as the civil wars, because, among the sights of London,
one is St. Paul's Cathedral turned into a stable. On the other hand, tfiat air
may not be as old as Lilliburlero, for I know of no copy earlier than 1729, and
there is another under the same name (but said to be "a new tune"), printed
with the words of In Taunton Dean in The Merry Musician, i. 305, 1716.
Again, although There was an old fellow at Waltham Cross was sung to the tune
of In Taunton Dean (the one that resembles Lilliburlero) in the ballad-operas of
Flora, and The Jovial Crew, there is no proof that the same music was sung in
Brome's original play. On the contrary, there is other music to " There was an
old fellow," in Hilton's Catch that catch can, and Playford's Musical Companion.
The first collection in which the words of Lilliburlero appeared was The Muses'
Farewell to Popery and Slavery, 1689. It was afterwards published in Poems on
Affairs of State, and some others. Percy prints but the first part.
Shadwell seems to refer to the copy of the tune in Music's Handmaid (where
REIGN OF CHARLES II. TO WILLIAM III. 571
it is arranged for the virginals or harpsichord) , when, in his play of The Scowerers
(1391 a ), Eugenia says : " And another music master from the next town, to teach
one to twinkle out Lilliburlero upon an old pair of virginals, that sound worse than
a tinker's kettle, that he cries his work upon." It is also alluded to by Vanbrugh,
in his comedy of JEsop, and by Sterne, in Tristram Shandy, where Uncle Toby
is said to be constantly whistling it.
The ballads that were sung to the tune are so numerous, that space will only
permit the mention of a very small proportion.
"Dublin's Deliverance; or, The Surrender of Drogheda:" commencing,
" Protestant Boys, good tidings I bring." This, singularly enough, is omitted in
Mr. Crofton Croker's Historical Songs of Ireland. A copy is in the Pepys
Collection, ii. 303.
" Undaunted London-derry ; or, The Victorious Protestants' constant success
against the proud French and Irish forces:" commencing, " Protestant Boys,
both valiant and stout." Bagford Collection, 643, m., 10, p. 116 ; and in the
same volume, " The Courageous Soldiers of the West," and " The Reading
Skirmish."
The Roxburghe Collection contains " The Protestant Courage," " Courageous
Betty of Chick Lane," &c., &c.
In the later editions of The'Grarland of Goodwill, is " Teague and Sawney;
or, The unfortunate success of dear Joy's devotion." It is about a windmill,
which Sawney mistakes for St. Andrew's Cross, and Teague for St. Patrick's.
The latter kneels before it, and is caught up by the wind setting the mill in motion.
The following are still commonly sung to the air : " The Sussex Whistling
Song:" beginning, " There was an old farmer in Sussex did dwell." To this
the company whistle in chorus, wherever the words Lilliburlero and Bullen a lah
would occur. It is printed in Dixon's Songs of the Peasantry of England, p. 210.
A second is
" A very good song, and very well sung,
Jolly companions every one."
This is a common chorus after any song that has been approved by the hearers.
Lastly, the well-known nursery rhyme :
" There was an old woman went up in a basket,
Seventeen times as high as the moon.
And where she was going I conld not but ask it,
Because in her hand she carried a broom,
' Old woman, old woman, old woman,' said I,
' Where are you going ? whither so high ?'
' To sweep the cobwebs off the sky,
And I shall be back again bye-and-bye.' "
The tune was, and still is, so popular, that two versions are submitted to the
reader, the old way and the present. The following is the old way, with the first
part of the words of Lilliburlero. The second part of the words was added after
the landing of King William.
Mr. Dauney misdates this play "about 1670 :" thereby eighteen years before the revolution. Ancient Melodies
making the song of Lilliburlero to have been written of, Scotland, p. 19, 4to , 1838.
572 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
"A NEW IRISH SONG OF LIL-LI BUR LERO, TO AN EXCELLENT NEW TUNE."
:
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Ho! bro-ther Teague, dost hear de de-cree? Lil-li bur-le- ro, bullen a la,
Dat we shall have a new de-pu-tie, Lil-li bur-le- ro, bullen a la,
fe^
Le-ro, le - ro, lil-li bur-le- ro, LiWi bur-le - ro, bul-len a la, . .
_i I
9
Le - ro, le - ro, lil-li bur-le - ro, lil-li bur-le - ro, bul-len
la.
Ho ! by my shoul it is de Talbot,
And he will cut all de English throat ;
Tho', by my shoul, de English do praat,
De law's on dare side, andCreish knows what.
But, if dispence do come from de Pope, [rope.
We'll hang Magna Charta and demselves in a
And de good Talbot is made a lord,
And he with brave lads is coming aboard,
Who all in France have taiiken a sware,
Dat dey will have no Protestant heir.
O, but why does he stay behind ?
Ho ! by my shoul, 'tis a Protestant wind.
Now Tyrconnel is come ashore,
And we shall have commissions gillore ;
And he dat will not go to mass
Shall turn out, and look like an ass.
Now, now de hereticks all go down, [own.
By]Creish and St. Patrick, de nation's our
The following four lines are added to the song in The Muses' Farewell to
Popery and Slavery, but are printed separately in State Poems, and entitled " An
Irish Prophecy: "
" There was an old prophecy found in a bog,
That Ireland should be rul'd by an ass and a dog.
The prophecy's true, and now come to pass,
For Talbot's a dog, and Tyrconnel's an ass."
In some later copies, the credit of being the ass is transferred to King James.
The following version of the tune is more generally adopted in the present day.
Three stanzas of a song in praise of the ale of Nottingham, or Newcastle (for it
is printed both ways), are adapted to it. A copy in praise of Newcastle ale is in
the Roxburghe Collection, iii. 421 ; and one giving the credit to Nottingham is
on a broadside with music, now before me. The tune is copied from the latter.
KEIGN OF CHAKLES II. TO WILLIAM III.
573
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Ju - pi - ter's son, Pray at - tend to my tale, For they who thus chat-ter, mis -
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-take quite the mat- ter, He sprang from a bar - rel of Not-ting-h a m ale.
CHORUS.
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Nottingham ale, boys, Nottingham ale, No li-quor on earth is like Nottingham ale.
-c
574
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
Ye Bishops and Curates, Priests, Deacons, and
Vicars, [true,
When once you have tasted, you'll own it is
That Nottingham ale is the best of all liquors,
And none understand what is good like to
you. [paper,
It dispels ev'ry vapour, saves pen, ink, and
For, when you've a mind in the pulpit to
rail, [without notes,
'Twill open your throats, you may preach
When inspir'd with a bumper of Nottingham
Chorus. Nottingham ale, boys, &c. [ale.
Ye Doctors, who more execution have done,
With powder and potion, and bolus and pill,
Than hangman with halter, or soldier with gun,
Or miser with famine, or lawyer with quill ;
To despatch us the quicker, you forbid us malt
liquor,
Till our bodies consume, and our faces grow
pale ;
Let him mind you who pleases what cures all
disease is
A comforting glass of good Nottingham ale.
Chorus. Nottingham ale, boys, &c.
JAMES THE SECOND'S MARCH.
This march is contained in The Dancing Master of 1690, and in every sub-
sequent edition. In the earlier of the above-named it is entitled The Garter,
and in the later, King James's March, or The Grarter.
Boldly.
Mi
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REIGN OF CHARLES II. TO WILLIAM III. 575
IN JANUARY LAST.
This is a song in D'Urfey's play, The Fond Husband, or The Plotting Sisters,
wliich was acted in 1676.
The words and music are to be found in Playford's Choice Ayres, ii. 46, 1679,
and in vol. i. of all editions of Pills to purge Melancholy. The tune is in Apollo ] s
Banquet, 1690, and probably in some of the earlier editions which I have
not seen.
The words are in the Roxburghe Collection, ii. 414, entitled " The Scotch
Wedding, or A short and pretty way of wooing : To a new Northern tune, much
ufc'd at the theatres." Printed for P. Brooksby. In the same Collection,
iii. 116, is "The new-married Scotch Couple, or The Second Part of the Scotch
Wedding," &c., "To a new Northern tune, or In January last" Printed by
Thackeray, Passinger, and Whitwood.
Many other ballads were sung to it, of which one or two have already
been quoted. I will only add to the list, " Northern Nanny, or The Loving
Lasses Lamentation," &c., a copy of which is in the Douce Collection (164).
It commences
" On Easter Monday last, I heard a pensive maiden mourn,
When lads and lasses play, Tears trickling down amain ;
As o'er the green I past 'Alas!' quoth she, 'why was I born
Near noon-time of the day, To live in mickle pain ? ' "
This identifies In January last as one of the tunes called Northern Nanny.
Allan Ramsay included "In January last" in vol. ii. of The Tea-Table Mis-
cellany, as " a song to be sung to its own tune." He altered some of the lines,
and improved the spelling of the Anglo- Scottish words, but made no addition.*
Ramsay's version was followed by Thomson, in his Orpheus Caledonius (ii. 42,
1733), but he changed the name to The glancing of her Apron ; taking that title
from the seventh line of the song. In one of the Leyden MSS. (about 1700),
the tune bears the name of The bonny brow from the eighth line of the same.
Both the words and music became extremely popular in Scotland. Even so
late as 1797, they were reprinted in Johnson's Scot's Musical Museum ; but on
that occasion Burns " brushed up the three first stanzas of Ramsay's version,
and omitted the remainder for an obvious reason."
The increasing refinement of manners was causing a gradual change in the style
of popular poetry, and the rejection of many of the older pieces, so that when, in
1815, Mr. Alexander Campbell was on a tour on the borders of Scotland for the
purpose of collecting Scotch airs, he received a traditional version of the air from
Mr. Thomas Pringle, with a verse of other words, which Mr. Pringle had heard
his mother sing to it. This was the first stanza of the now-celebrated song of
Jock 0' Hazledean, which Sir Walter Scott so admirably completed. It was first
printed in Albyn's Anthology (vol. i., 1816, fol.), with the air arranged by
Campbell. Campbell mistook it for an old Border melody.
* Mr. Stenhouse says that Allan Ramsay reprinted it as " an old song with additions;" vhich is a mistake.
576
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
The following is the old tune, with the first stanza of the old words :
Gracefully.
I a - long
the fields did pass To view the win-ter's corn ;
IE
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leak- ed me . . be - hind,
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And I saw come o'er the knough,
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DULCE DOMUM.
" The tradition connected with this song is, that a Wykehamist, being for
some misdemeanor confined to his rooms at Winchester, during a vacation, and
thus disappointed in his expectation of returning home, he composed and set this
song to music, while languishing for domestic endearments, and that incessantly
playing it to relieve his heart-ache, he pined away and died."
" And see in durance the fast-fading boy,
Midst Wykeham's walls his dulcet sorrows heave ;
Fled are his fairy dreams of homely joy.
Ah ! frowns too chilling, that his soul bereave
Of all that frolic fancy long'd to weave
In his paternal woods ! His hands he wrings
In anguish ! Yet some balm his sorrows leave
To soothe his fainting spirits, as he sings,
And suits to every sigh the sweetly- warbling strings.
O he had notch'd, unweeting of distress,
The hours of school- boy toil ! Nor irksome flew
REIGN OF CHARLES II. TO WILLIAM III. 577
The moments ; for, each morn, his score was less !
Visions of vacant home yet brighter grew;
When lo ! stern fate obscnr'd the blissful view :
Droops his sick heart. And " Ah, dear fields, (he cries)
" Ye bloom no more ! dear native fields, adieu 1"
" Home, charming home !" still plaintive Echo sighs,
And to his parting breath the dulcet murmur dies.
PolwheeTs Influence of Local Attachment, p. 57.
Dr. Milner, in his History of Winchester., says, " We shall now conclude this
account of the college, with inserting the famous song of Duke Domum, which
is publicly sung by the scholars and choristers, aided by a band of music, pre-
viously to the summer vacation. The existence of this song can only be traced
up the distance of about a century [from the time at which he wrote], yet the
real author of it, and the occasion of its composition, are already clouded with
fables."
It has been justly remarked by J. P. Malcolm, in the Gentleman's Magazine for
1796, that the sentiments of the words are rather those of a scholar looking
forward with an early expectation of enjoying the delights of the home joys he
describes, than of a boy who died of sorrow, chained to a post.
Dr. Hayes, and other authorities, attribute the composition of the music to
John Reading, who was organist of Winchester College and of Winchester
Cathedral, of the College from 1681 to 1689, a and probably till 1695, in which
year he is said to have died. Reading composed the music to the three Latin
Graces, which are sung at the annual college elections, the Ante cibum, Post
cibum, and the Oratio, " Agimus tibi gratias, omnipotens Deus, pro fundatore
no.stro, Gulielmo de Wykeham," &c.
The printed copies of Duke Domum also ascribe the music to " Johannes
Reading," and " the poetry " to " Turner." b Such of these as I have seen are
of comparatively late date perhaps no one older than the latter part of the last
century but they were most probably reprints from earlier editions.
Duke Domum is still sung at Winchester on the eve of the break-up-day.
The collegians sing it first in the school-room, and have a band to play it.
Afterwards they repeat it at intervals throughout the evening, before the
assembled visitors, in the College mead or play-ground; and continue to sing
'The rolls of Winchester College give the date of first time at the Portuguese Ambassador's chapel, in South
Rej ding's appointment. These rolls are lists of the offi- Street, Park Lane, and he, supposing it to he peculiar to
cers, prepared yearly. Those between 1689 and 1G97 are the service in Portugal, introduced it at the Ancient
mi? sing, but in the latter year Bishop was organist. This Concerts, giving it that title.
Joli n Reading has sometimes been confounded with a b No scholar of the name of Turner is to be found on
later writer of the same name, who was organist of the Registers of the College in Reading's time, and but
St. John's, Hackney. Both composed anthems, but the one who had been a scholar was his cotemporary. This
Bh graphical Dictionary of Musicians is incorrect, as to was Francis Turner, admitted in 1650, superannuated in
dat;, when it states that the latter " published a collection 1655; who then proceeded to St. John's College, Cam-
of .Anthems of his own composition towards the end of bridge, became Prebendary of St. Paul's and Bishop of
the seventeenth century." The second John Reading's Ely, one of the seven bishops who were brought to trial
"first essays" were A Book of New Songs, which must before the Court of King's Bench by James II. The
ha\e been printed after 1708, because he describes him- Registers contain the names of all the scholars from the
sell , on the title page, as having been " educated in the very first. Before Francis Turner there were Edward
Ch; pel Royal, under the late Dr. John Blow," and Turner, in 1477, John Turner, in 1530, Edward Turner, in
Dr Blow died in that year. Reading composed the well- 1551, and Edward Turner, in 1620; also, two Turnars, in
km wn "Adeste, fideles," commonly called "The Por- 1522 and 1529. The remoteness of these dates (the
tug lese Hymn." The accident by which it acquired the nearest being sixty years before Reading's appointment)
latt ;r name is thus related in Novello's Home Music: leads to the inference that Francis Turner, afterwards
Tin- Duke of Leeds, who was a director of the Ancient Bishop of Ely, was the author.
Coi certs about 1785, heard the hymn performed for the
578
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
even after darkness has dispersed their guests, and without the introduction of
any other vocal music.
It was formerly sung round " an old tree that stood in the ground recently
used as a wharf, but now converted into a garden." Notes and Queries, Sep. 9,
1854.
The following translation is by Dr. Charles Wordsworth, present Bishop of
St. Andrew's, and formerly second master of the College. The chorus from
another copy :
Rather slow.
04* 1 -
1
X ^
s
ItS
P ^
u-
vT vi J .
m \ m P \
j . ij
'
Qi
fen " * '""
m 9. f i
5 M _
S i
' F
1
d
Vs 7 ^
F F F m !^J 1
* D
C
i
L
Con - ci - na - mus, O so - -
Come, com - panions, join your
da - les! E - ja, quid si - le - -
voi - ces, Hearts with pleasure bound -
rHS-p 1 k-
i 1 J J
-C
~r '
1
A^f _, J ,.
J *
J
- d JJ~
pd-il j J 1 J
-
-P^ U.k k
- mus ? No - bi - le
- ing ; Sing we the
~d n
can - ti - cum, dul - ce
no-ble lay, Sweet song of
L -
~^1 J -j-^=^
me - los, Do - mum,
ho - li - day, Joys of
rd 1 K-
s d -.-
=j J jj J
H L-= J I
CHORUS,
do - mum re - so - ne - mus. Do - mum, do - mum, dul - ce
home, sweet home, re - sound - ing. Home ! sweet home, with ev' - ry
^-J L-i
H
fe
SOLO, i
do - mum Dul ce do - mum re - so - nemus, Do - mum,
plea - sure ! Home, with ev' - ry bless - ing crown'd : Home, our
mm
fi
r
i* *
CHORUS.
do - mum, dul - ce
best de - light and
do-mum, Dul - ce do - mum re - so - nemus.
trea-sure ! Home, the wel - come song, re - sound !
REIGN OF CHARLES II. TO WILLIAM III.
579
See, the wish'd-for day approaches,
Day with joys attended :
School's heavy course is run,
Safely the goal is won,
Happy goal, where toils are ended.
Quit, my weary muse, your labours,
Quit your books and learning ;
Banish all cares away,
Welcome the holiday,
Hearts for home and freedom yearning.
Smiles the season, smile the meadows,
Let us, too, be smiling ;
Now the sweet guest is come,
Philomel, to her home,
Homeward, too, our steps beguiling.
Roger, ho ! 'tis time for starting,
Haste with horse and traces ;
Seek we the scene of bliss,
Where a fond mother's kiss
Longing waits her boy's embraces.
Sing once more, the gate surrounding,
Loud the joyous measure,
Lo ! the bright morning star,
Slow rising from afar,
Still retards our dawn of pleasure.
Appropinquat, ecce! felix !
Hora gaudiorum :
Post grave tedium,
Advenit omnium
Meta petita laborum.
Musa, libros mitte, fessa,
Mitte pensa dura :
Mitte negotium,
Jam datur otium ;
Me mea mittito cura !
Ridet annus, prata rident ;
Nosque rideamus.
Jam repetit domum,
Daulias advena :
Nosque domum repetamus.
Heus : Rogere ! fer cab all os ;
Eja, nunc eamus;
Limen amabile,
Matris et oscula,
Suaviter et repetamus !
Concinamus ad Penates ;
Vox et audiatur :
Phosphore ! quid jubar
Segnius emicans,
Gaudia nostra moratur?
HARVEST-HOME.
There are still many harvest-home and harvest-supper songs extant ; but
formerly the labours of the field were accompanied with song, as well as the after
rejoicings. " How heartily," says Dr. John Case, " doth the poorest swain both
please himself, and flatter his beast, with whistling and singings. Alas ! what
pleasure could they take at the whip and plough tail, in so often and incessant
labours; such bitter weather-beatings ; sometimes benumbed with cold ; otherwise
melted with heat ; unless they quieted, and even brought asleep their painfulness,
with this their homely, yet comfortable and self-pleasing exercise ? . . . Those
with a light heart make their plough go lighter, and while they use the solace of
their natural instruments, both quicken themselves and encourage forward their
over -laboured horse." (" Tfie Praise of Music, Printed at Oxenford by
Joseph Barnes, Printer to the University," 1586.) Mr. Surtees, in his History
of Durham, mentions having read a report of a trial " in which a Mr. Spearman
made a forcible entry into a field of Mrs. Wright's at Birtley, and mowed and
carried away the crop whilst his piper played from the top of the loaded wains,"
for the purpose of making the men work the faster, so as to get away before they
could be interrupted. If harvest men were introduced on the stage in the early
drama, it was almost invariably for the purpose of making them sing or dance.
In Peele's Old Wives' Tale, 1571, the harvest men appear at this speech, .
2 P
580 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
" 0, these are the harvest men ; ten to one they sing a song of mowing."
However, they sing one of sowing, " Lo, Here we come a sowing, a sowing ;"
and, in another part of the play,
" Lo, here we come a reaping, a reaping, And thus we pass the year so long,
To reap our harvest fruit ! And never be we mute."
In Nashe's Summer's last Will and Testament (printed in 1600), Harvest
enters " with a scythe on his neck, and all his reapers with sickles, and a great
black bowl with a posset in it, borne before him." They come in singing, and
this is their song :
" Merry, merry, merry ; cheary, cheary, Hooky > hooky, we have shorn,
Trowl the black bowl to me ; [cheary ; And we have bound,
Hey, derry, derry ; with a poup and a And we have brought Harvest
I'll trowl it again to thee : [leary ; Home to town"
The editor of Dodsley's Old Plays (ix. 41, 1825), remarks that the above was
probably " a harvest-home song, usually sung by reapers in the country ;" and
that " the chorus or burden, i Hooky, hooky,' &c., is still heard in some parts of
the kingdom, with this variation :
' Hooky, hooky, we have shorn, And we have brought the harvest home,
And bound what we did reap ; To make bread good and cheap.' "
The ceremony of an English harvest-home is thus described by Hentzner, who
travelled through England (as well as through Germany, France, and Italy)
towards the close of the sixteenth century, and published his Itmerarium'm 1598 :
"As we were returning to our inn" (at Windsor), " we happened to meet some
country people celebrating their harvest-home : Their last load of corn they crown
with flowers, having besides an image richly dressed, by which they would perhaps
signify Ceres ; this they keep moving about, while men and women, men and maid
servants, riding through the streets in the cart, shout as loud as they can till they
arrive at the barn." Dr. Moresin, another foreigner, who published, in the
reign of James I., an elaborate work on the " Origin and Increase of Depravity
in Religion," relates that he saw " in England the country people bringing home,
In a cart from the harvest field, a figure made of corn, round which men and
women were promiscuously singing, preceded by a piper and a drum." Some-
times, instead of a figure made of corn, a young girl was dressed as the Harvest
Queen, being crowned with flowers, a sheaf of corn placed under her arm, and a
sickle in her hand, and so drawn along. Another crown of flowers was placed
lipon the head of the most expert reaper.
The harvest festivities are described by Dr. Drake, in his Shakspeare and his
Times, as " a scene not only remarkable for merriment and hospitality, but for a
temporary suspension of all inequality between master and man." The whole
family sat down at the same table, and conversed, danced, and sang together
during the entire night, without difference or distinction of any kind ; and in
many places, indeed, this freedom of manner subsisted during the whole period of
getting in the harvest. Thus Tusser, recommending the social equality of the
harvest-tide, exclaims,
REIGN OF CHARLES II. TO WILLIAM III.
581
" In harvest time, harvest folke, servants and all,
Should make, all together, good cheer in the hall,
And fill out the black bowl, so blithe to their song,
And let them be merry, all harvest-time long."
In the reign of Charles L, we have the following admirable description by
Herrick, of "The Hock-Cart, b or
Pickering's edit.) :
" Come, sons of summer, by whose toil,
We are the lords of wine and oil,
By whose tough labours and rough hands,
We rip up first, then reap our lands.
Crown'd with the ears of corn, now come,
And, to the pipe, sing Harvest-home.
Come forth, my lord, and see the cart
Brest up with all the country art.
See, here a Maukin, c there a sheet,
As spotless pure as it is sweet ;
The horses, mares, and frisking fillies,
Clad all in linen white as lilies.
The harvest swains and wenches bound
For joy, to see the hock-cart crown'd.
-About the cart hear how the rout
Cf rural younglings raise the shout,"
Pressing before, some coming after,
Harvest-Home" (Hesperides, i. 139>
Ye shall see first the large and chief
Foundation of your feast, fat beef ;
With upper stories, mutton, veal,
And bacon, which makes full the meal ;
With sev'ral dishes standing by,
As, here a custard, there a pie,
And here all tempting frumenty.
And for to make the merry cheer,
If smirking wine be wanting here, [beer;
There's that which drowns all care, stout
Which freely drink to your lord's health,
Then to the plough, the commonwealth,
Next to your flails, your vanes, your vats,
Then to the maids with wheaten hats ;
To the rough sickle, and crookt scythe,
Drink, frolic, boys, till all be blythe.
Feed and grow fat, and as ye eat,
Those with a shout, and these with laughter. Be mindful that the lab'ring neat,
Some bless the cart, some kiss the sheaves,
Some prank them up with oaken leaves,
Some cross the fill-horse, some with great
I Devotion stroke the home -borne wheat ;
While other rustics, less attent
To prayers than to merriment,
Kun after with their breeches rent.
Well, on, brave boys, to your lord's hearth,
As you, may have their full of meat.
And know, besides ye must revoke
The patient ox unto the yoke,
And all go back unto the plough [now.
And harrow, though they're hang'd up
And that this pleasure is like rain,
Not sent ye for to drown your pain,
But for to make it spring again."
Glitt'ring with fire, where, for your mirth,
So Stevenson, in his Twelve Moneths, 1661, says, " In August the furmety pot
welcomes home the Harvest Cart, and the garland of flowers crowns the captain
of the Reapers : the battle of the field is now stoutly fought. The pipe and the
tabor are now busily set a- work ; and the lad and the lass will have no lead on
their heels. 'tis the merry time wherein honest neighbours make good cheer,
and God is glorified in his blessings on the earth."
a Tusscr redivivus, p 104. In the first edition of Tusser,
1 -57 (reprinted by Sir Egerton Brydges), this stanza is
a , follows : .
' Then welcome thy harvest folke, serveauntes and all;
With mirth and good chere, let them furnish the hall.
The Harvest -Lorde nightly, must give thee a song :
Fill him then the blacke boil, or els he hath wrong."
b " Hock-cart, By this word is meant the high or
rejoicing-cart, and it was applied to the last load of corn,
as typical of the close of harvest. Thus Hock-tide is de-
rived from the Saxon Hoah-tid. or high tide, and is ex-
pressive of the height of festivity." (Dr. Drake.)
Horkey, Hockey, and Hooky, seem all to be derived from,
this root.
c Maukin, a country maid,
582 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
The original of the following harvest-song is to be found in the fifth act of
Dry den's opera of King Arthur. It there forms part of the incantations of
Merlin, and is sung by Comus and three peasants to Arthur and Emmeline.
Comus. " Your hay it is mow'd, and your corn is reap'd ;
Your barns will be full, and your hovels heap'd :
Come, boys, come ; come, boys, come ;
And merrily roar out Harvest Home.
Chorus. Come, boys, come : come, boys, come ;
And merrily roar out Harvest Home.
1st Man. We've cheated the parson, we'll cheat him again,
For why should a blockhead have one in ten ?
One in ten, one in ten,
For why should a blockhead have one in ten ?
CJwrus. One in ten, one in ten,
For why should a blockhead have one in ten ?
2nd Man. For prating so long like a book-learn'd sot,
'Till pudding and dumpling do burn to th' pot ?
Burn to pot ; burn to pot ;
'Till pudding and dumpling burn to pot ?
Chorus. Burn to pot ; burn to pot ;
'Till pudding and dumpling burn to pot.
3rd Man. We'll toss off our ale till we cannot stand,
And hoigh for the honour of Old England,
Old England, Old England,
And hoigh for the honour of Old England.
CJwrus. Old England, Old England,
And hoigh for the honour of Old England."
It appears that the actors were to dance and sing at the same time, for at the
end is a stage direction : " The dance varied into a round country dance."
Dryden tells us, in his dedication of King Arthur, that the writing of the
" poem " was " the last piece of service he had the honour to do for King
Charles II," who died before its performance on the stage. The music was com-
posed by Purcell, but this song is not included in any extant manuscript, even in
those which contain the other music of the incantation scene. The Hon. Roger
North tells us that Purcell's score was " unhappily lost " within a few years after
the opera was produced, and all the manuscripts now remaining are more or less
imperfect. However, the tune and words are found in Pills to purge Melancholy,
and the former in at least a dozen ballad-operas, under the name of Wive
cheated the Parson. Purcell, no doubt, composed a part-song, and this was
probably extracted from it.
When transformed into a ballad, the words underwent some modification, and
a second part was added as an antidote to the first. Dryden's introduction of
Comus to sing with three peasants about cheating the parson of his tithes, among
the incantations of Merlin, is rather anomalous.
The ballad-printers entitled it " The Country Farmer's Vain-Glory, in a new
RETQN OP CHARLES II. TO WILLIAM III.
583
song of Harvest Home ; sung to a new tune much in request : " and the second
part, " An Answer to Harvest Home : a true character of such countrymen who
glory in cheating the vicar, and prefer bag-pudding and dumpling before religion
and learning."
" Tell them of going to Church to pray,
They'd rather hear Robin the Piper play : . . .
Their hungry appetite to suffice,
Bag-pudding and dumpling they idolize. . . .
Likewise, by the laws of this potent land,
They in the pillory ought to stand."
These were issued by printers who were contemporaries of Dryden and Purcell,
for we find copies in the Roxburghe and other collections, printed by Brooksby,
Deacon, Blare, and Back. (Rox. ii. 82, Halliwell No. 54, &c.)
The first part has been reprinted in Festive Songs, by W. Sandys, F.S.A., and
in both editions of Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England.
Cheerfully.
Our oats they are hoed, and our har-ley's reap'd, Our hay it is mow'd, and our
m
Repeat in Chorus.
ho - vels heap'd. Come,boys,come,Come,boys,come, And merrily roar out Harvest Home!
Harvest Home ! Harvest Home ! We'll merrily roar out Harvest Home !
ESnrlEilf ; H p-p-ll-l-fea
" We've cheated the parson, we'll cheat him again ;
For why should the Vicar have one in ten ?
One in ten ; one in ten ; &c.
For staying while dinner is cold and hot,
And pudding and dumpling are burnt to th' pot ?
Burnt to pot ; burnt to pot ; &c.
We'll drink off our liquor while we can stand,
And hey for the honour of Old England !
Old England ; Old England ; " &c.
After a time, the first part of the above tune was discarded, and the second
joined on to the nursery tune of Boys and Grirls, come out to play. It is found in
r,hat form in the ballad-opera of Polly, 1729, under the name of We've cheated
the Parson, and in the third volume of The Dancing Master, under that of " Girls
and Boys, come out to play : the new way." The " old way" was to repeat the
first strain with a little variation, or to take it a fifth higher.
- x Gracefully. ,
"A fi -f-J 1 s H- -J 3 1 f- - 1 -
^-J5>^ J f*-H 1
(qra C * 3 J 3 * J E -^ *-*-* ^ *-J-H
3
Girls and boys, come out to play, The moon doth shine as bright as day :
. . J ^^2 . .
7 __ _ m . . , ^ pje . K , ^
B:, fi p T f j
<S
-k-ft-l
H--
Leave your supper, and leave your sleep, And come to your play -fel-lows down the street.
Come with a whoop, come with a call, Come with good will, or not at all.
Up the ladder and down the wall, A half- pen-ny roll will serve us all.
=J= i=^ Tf ===
AYE, MARRY, AND THANK YE TOO.
This is the burden of the ballad, " I live in the town of Lynn," a continuation
of which (with a somewhat similar tune) will be found in Pills to purge Melan-
choly, iii. 131, 1707, commencing:
" I am the young lass of Lynn,
Who often said, ' Thank you too.' "
This air is found under the title of I marry, and thank ye too, in Youth's Delight
on the Flagelet, 1697 ; oil live in the town of Lynn, in Silvia, or The Country Burial,
1831; and of The Bark in Tempest tost, in Robin Hood, 1730. The last name is
from the song adapted to it in Silvia.
There is a variety of ballads extant that were sung to the tune ; for instance,
in the second volume of the Roxburghe Collection there are three, printed by
Brooksby, Deacon, Blare, and Back.
A few stanzas of one of these, " The London Lass's Lamentation : or Her fear
she should never be married/' are here printed with the music.
REIGN OF CHARLES II. TO WILLIAM III.
- x With mock pathos.
A - las ! I am in a
rage, And bitterly weep and cry,
=t
585
Be -
Hf^-^
cause I'm nine -teen years of age, Yet cannot be mar-ried, not I.
^-
$
--?
*
Mine eyes do like fountains flow,
As I on my pillow lie,
There's none know what I undergo,
Yet cannot be married, not I.
My father is grey and old,
And, surely, ere long will die,
And though he'll leave me all his gold,
Yet cannot be married, not I.
In silks I am still array 'd,
And ev'ry new fashion buy,
Because I'm so loth to die an old maid,
Yet cannot be married, not I.
The gold which I have in store,
I value no more than clay,
I'd give it all, and ten times more,
So 1 might be married to-day.
BARTHOLOMEW FAIR.
" The Countryman's Ramble through Bartholomew Fair " is contained in
Vol. I. of Pills to purge Melancholy, 1699 to 1714, and in Vol. III. of the 1719
edition. The tune in The Dancing Master of 1695, and in subsequent editions,
also in The Quaker's Opera, and other ballad-operas. In The Dancing Master
it is entitled, The Whim, or Bartholomew Fair.
It will be observed that the rhythm is somewhat peculiar, each phrase consist-
ing of three bars. This is one of the forms common to English jigs and hornpipes.
Many examples of similar metre might be adduced, but it may be sufficient to
cite " A Northern Jigg," on the first page of Apollo's Banquet, 1690 or 1693.
The termination of each phrase with the same note three times, has been con-
sidered as a characteristic of Irish music, but there are many old English tunes
^hich share this peculiarity. 8 - I imagine it to have arisen, in both countries, from
the music keeping time with the steps of the dance,
" Why should or you or we so much forget
The season in ourselves, as not to make
Use of our youth and spirits, to awake
The nimble hornpipe, and the tambourine,
And mix our songs and dances in the wood."
Ben Jon son's Sad Shepherd.
* I might quote some of the earliest copies of John,
c ime kiss me now, of lam the Duke of Norfolk, and others.
The copy of John, come kiss me now that I have chosen,
is a violin version, and the second note of the three is
there taken, usually, the octave lower.
586
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
The hornpipe concludes with three beats of the feet, and I am informed by those
who have seen dancing among the factory people in Lancashire, that in their dances
they tap the heels together three times, so as to make them ring, at each close.
In Ireland, according to Dr. Petrie, " in general the floor is struck, or rather,
tipped lightly, three times during every bar of the tune" of the " hop-jig."
Merrily.
3:
Ad - zooks ! che's went the o - ther day to Lon - don town, In
J^-^hH
ffiFft-
Smithfield such gaeing, such thrust -ing and squeezing, was ne - ver known.
zit - ty of wood! some volks do call it Bar -tle-dom Fair, But
che's
nought hut kings and queens live there.
In gold and zilver, zilk and velvet, each was drest,
A Lord in bis zattin, was husy a prating among the rest,
But one in blue jacket did come, whome some do Andrew call,
Adsheart, talk'd woundy wittily to them all.
At last, cutzooks, he made such sport, I laugh 'd aloud,
The rogue heing fluster'd, he flung me a custard, amidst the croud.
The volk veil a laughing at me ; and then the vezen said,
" Be zure, Ralph, give it to Doll, the dairy maid."
I z wallow 'd the affront, but I would stay no longer there,
I thrust and I scrambled, till further I rambled into the Fair,
Where trumpets and bagpipes, kettledrums, fiddlers, were all at work,
And the cooks sung, " Here's your delicate pig and pork."
REIGN OF CHARLES II. TO WILLIAM III.
587
lie then went to see the tumbling and the dancing, and ends thus :
I thrust and shov'd along as well as ever I could,
At last I did grovel into a dark hovel where drink was sold,
They brought it in cans which cost a penny a-piece, adsheart !
I 'm zure twelve ne'er could vill a country quart.
Che went to draw her purse, to pay for their beer,
' But never a penny was left of my money, che'll vow and zwear,
They took my hat for a groat, and turn'd me out o' th' door,
Adswounds, Ralph, I never will go with such rogues any more.
MAY FAIR.
This is sometimes entitled May Fair, and sometimes, Jenny, Jenny, where
hast thou been f The latter is from a song by D'Urfey, entitled, The Willoughby
Whim.
It is contained in Pills to purge Melancholy (i. 169, 1719) ; in The Beggars'
Opera, 1728; The G-rub Street Opera, 1731; The Fashionable Lady, or Harlequin's
Opera, 1730 ; and in some editions of The Dancing Master.
May Fair was established as a Fair, " in the fields behind Piccadilly," in the
time of Charles II. About the commencement of the last century, the ground
was partially built over, and among other erections was a chapel, that became
as celebrated for clandestine marriages as the precincts of the Fleet. The
registers of those marriages are now in the parish church of St. George,
Hanover Square.
This tune was probably a favorite at the fairs. The words that were written
to it for ballad-operas possess but little interest apart from the dramas. I have
therefore adapted an old lullaby.
S\ b ' ** i
azucza j
I
\(v\ '1 J "-
_! Jin i n
$22 a f "J J
g j i ' ^ j g
J _f_
d * * T
Gol - den
slum - bers kiss ' your eyes,
9
^
>miles a -
- ^~
* ^ o f ^
c
^ "^ "^
\ m ! ^ i
t / [ I/ 9 S 1
r sazzs
r> '1 CH
CS Ulo M 1
17-4. g
i r n r
-v r>: 5?
1 ! 1 T
>^ ^
1 1 i
J'^ 1 1
, j j
! ii ' i* r ( i
J
q 2 M j-
: ;-J : H-e-H^-C I-N
5
- 1 33 I
-v/ake you when you rise,
a P
i E
B J E
. d j J-
e| v e
i
_J ^ B_
i I
I ,
i
1
i
i |
.
J J
A i
^-3
J
/-d c
i
^ *
^^-J-
cry, And
I will
S ^5
sing a lul - 1;
cs
i - by.
^ -m '
__J 1:
1
^ T
-^ A
sq : ^d :
Care you know not, therefore sleep,
While I o'er you watch do keep ;
Sleep, pretty darlings, do not cry,
And I will sing a lullaby.
588
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
THREE MERRY MEN OF KENT.
In the ballad-opera of The Jovial Crew, the old name of this air is given as
Three merry men of Kent.
In Folly in print, or a Book of Rymes, 1667, is a song entitled " Three merry
loys of Kent," to the tune of I rode from England into France ; but I have not
found " Three merry men of Kent."
The words sung to the tune in The Jovial Crew, form the fourth stanza of a
song commencing, " He that will not merry be."
It was printed on broadsides, and in several of the collections of old songs
which were published in the early part of the last century. The three first
stanzas are here copied from A complete Collection of old and new English and
Scotch Songs, with their respective tunes prefixed, Svo., 1735, i. 137 :
Ob t i
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He that will not merry, merry be,
And take his glass in course,
May he be obliged to drink small beer,
Ne'er a penny in his purse.
Let him be merry, merry there,
He that will not merry, merry be,
With a company of jolly boys,
May he be plagued with a scolding wife,
To confound him with her noise.
Let, him be merry, fyc.
REIGN OF CHARLES II. TO WILLIAM III. 589
ROUND AND ROUND, THE MILL GOES ROUND.
In the second part of The Dancing Master, 1696 and 1698, this tune is
entitled, The happy Miller. It is printed three or four times over in Pills to
purye Melancholy, under different names, and is contained in several of the ballad-
operas.
One of the songs in the Pills is
' How happy's the mortal that lives by his mill,
That depends on his own, not on Fortune's wheel ;
By the sleight of his hand, and the strength of his back,
How merrily his mill goes, clack, clack, clack.
How merrily, &c.
If his wife proves a scold, as too often 'tis seen,
For she may be a scold, sing God bless the Queen ;
With his hand to the mill, and his shoulder to the sack,
He drowns all discord with the merry clack, clack, clack.
He drowns all discord," &c.
There must be another Miller's Song, which I have not found, as the words,
" Bound and round, the mill goes round," do not occur in the above.
Another of the songs is " The Jovial Cobbler of Saint Helen's. Tune of Mill
gots clack." (Pills, iii. 151, 1707.)
" I am a jovial cobbler, bold and brave,
And, as for employment, enough I have
For to keep jogging my hammer and my awl,
Whilst I sit singing and whistling in my stall.
But there's Dick the carman, and Hodge, who drives the dray
For sixteen or eighteen pence a day,
They slave in the dirt, whilst I, with my awl,
Do get more money sitting, singing, whistling in my stall.
And there's Tom the porter, companion of the pot,
Who stands in the street, with his rope and knot,
Waiting in a corner to hear who will him call,
Whilst I am getting money, money, money in my stall.
And there's the jolly broom-man, his bread for to get,
Cries " Brooms " up and down in the open street,
And one cries " Broken glasses, though never so small,"
Whilst I am getting money, money, money in my stall.
And there is a gang of poor smutty souls,
WTio trudge up and down, to cry " Small coals,"
With a sack on their back, at the door stand and call,
Whilst I am getting money, money, money in my stall.
And others there are with another note,
Who cry up and down " An old suit or coat,"
And perhaps, on some days, they get nothing at all,
W T hilst I sit singing, getting money, money in my stall.
590 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
And there's the jolly cooper, with hoops at his back,
Who trudgeth up and down to see who lack
Their casks to be made tight, with hoops great and small,
Whilst I sit singing, getting money, &c.
And there's a jolly tinker, who loves a bonny lass,
Who trudges up and down to mend old brass,
With his long smutty pouch, to force holes withal,
Whilst I sit, &c.
And there is another, call'd old Tommy Terrah,
Who, up and down the city, does drive with a barrow,
To try to sell his fruit to great and to small,
Whilst I sit, &c.
And there are the blind, and the lame with wooden leg,
Who, up and down the city, are forc'd to beg :
They get crumbs of comfort, the which are but small,
Whilst I sit, &c.
And there's a gang of wenches, who oysters do sell,
And then Powder Moll, with her scent-sweet smell :
She trudges up and down with powder and with ball,
Whilst I sit, &c.
And there are jovial girls with their milking pails,
Who trudge up and down, with their draggle-tails
Flip-flapping at their heels; for customers they call,
Whilst I sit, &c.
These are the gang who do take great pain,
And it is these who me maintain,
But when it blows and rains, I do pity them all,
To see them trudge about, while I am in my stall.
And there are many more who slave and toil,
Their living to get, but it's not worth while
To mention tliem all ; so I'll sing in my stall,
I am the happiest mortal, mortal of them all."
The third, in the Pills, is " The jolly Sailor's Resolution." (vi. 41.) It is a
long ballad of fourteen stanzas, relating how the sailor had been well received by
his hostess, at Limehouse, when he had " abundance of gold," and was to have
married her daughter ; and how the daughter was coy, and the mother handed
him over to a press-gang, as soon as it was exhausted. Now, having replenished
his store, his resolution is to forsake the " canting crew," who were again begin-
ning to flatter him, and to marry another. He begins thus :
" That I am a sailor, 'tis very well known,
And never, as yet, had a wife of my own ;
But now I'm resolv'd to marry if I can,
To show myself a jolly, jolly, brisk young man."
There are several copies of the above, and it has been reprinted in Halli well's
Early Naval Ballads of England.
REIGN OF CHARLES II. TO WILLIAM III.
591
The following is from the ballad-opera of The Jovial Crew :
Jovially.
We'll gladden our hearts with the best of our cheer, Our spi-rits we'll raise with his
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make this the merriest night of the year, We'll make this the merriest night of the year.
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Nor sorrow, nor pain, amongst us shall be found,
To our master's good health shall the cup be crown'd :
That long he may live, and in bliss may abound,
Shall be ev'ry man's wish, while the bowl goes round.
Chorus. Shall be ev'ry man's wish, &c.
I OFTEN FOR MY JENNY STROVE.
This is contained in book iii. of The Banquet of Music, consisting of " songs
sung at the Court and theatres," 1689 ; in Apollo's Banquet, 1690 ; in The
Dancing Master, from 1695 ; in all editions of Pills to purge Melancholy; and in
The Jovial Crew, and other ballad-operas.
One of the ballads sung to the air, entitled Cupid's Revenge, is almost a para-
phrase of King Cophetua and The Beggar Maid, alluded to by Shakespeare,
and reprinted by Percy in the Reliques. " Cupid's Revenge " is contained in
Old Ballads, i. 138, 8vo., 1723, and in Evans' Old Ballads, ii. 361, 1810. Evans,
as usual, omits the name of the tune. It commences thus :
" A king once reign'd beyond the seas,
As we in ancient stories find,
Whom no fair face could ever please :
He cared not for womankind.
He despis'd the sweetest beauty,
And the greatest fortune too ;
At length he married to a beggar ;
See what Cupid's dart can do," &c.
592
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
There are several black-letter ballads to the tune in the Roxburghe and Douce
Collections, such as " The love-sick Serving Man ; showing how he was wounded
with the charms of a young lady, and did not dare to reveal his mind" (Rox., ii.
299) ; " The old Miser slighted" (Rox., ii. 387) ; &c.
The original words, which are in The Banquet of Music, and in the Pills, are
here reprinted with the music.
Gracefully.
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When first I saw thy lovely charms,
I kiss'd thee, wish'd thee in my arms ;
I often vow'd and still protest
'Tis Joan alone that I love best.
I have gotten twenty pounds,
My father's house, and all his grounds,
And for ever would be, should be, could be
Join'd with none, but only thee.
LADIES OF LONDON, BOTH WEALTHY AND FAIR.
The tune is in The Dancing Master of 1690, and in subsequent editions ; in
Apollo's Banquet, 1690; in all editions of Pills to purge Melancholy ; and in many
ballad-operas. It is sometimes entitled London Ladies, instead of Ladies of
London.
A black-letter copy of the ballad is in the Roxburghe Collection, ii. 5, printed
REIGN OF CHARLES II. TO WILLIAM III.
593
for J . Back, on London Bridge, and entitled " Advice to the Ladies of London
in the choice of their husbands : to an excellent new Court tune."
The following were also sung to it:
" Advice to the Ladies of London to forsake their fantastical top-knots, since they
are become so common with Billingsgate women, and the wenches that cry kitchen
stuff," &c. To the tune of Ye Ladies of London:" beginning
" Now you young females that follow the mode."
" The Country Maiden's Lamentation : " beginning
" There came up a lass from a country town,
Intending to live in the city,
In steeple-crown hat, and a paragon gown,
Who thought herself wondrous pretty.
Her petticoat serge ; her stockings were green," &c.
The two last are in the Douce Collection. In the Roxburghe, ii. 101, is
" A country gentleman came up to town,
To taste the delights of the city,
Who had to his servant a jocular clown,
Accounted to be very witty," &c.
There are several more in the same volume. See pages 97, 444, 519, and 530.
Gracefully. ^^^
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Ladies of London, both wealthy and fair, Whom ev'rytown fop is pur-su- ing,
Pniy of yourselves and your purses take care, The greatest deceit lies in woo - ing.
From the first rank of the beaux esprits, Their vices I here will dis - cov - er,
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to the bas-est me - chanic de-gree, That so you may choose out a lov - er.
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594
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN LIV'D UNDER A HILL.
This is contained in all the editions of Pills to purge Melancholy, and the
tune introduced in The Jovial Grew, and other ballad-operas.
The following words are from The Jovial Crew :
There was a maid went to the mill, Sing trol - ly, lol - ly, lol- ly, lol-ly lo, The
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CHORUS.
mill tura'd round, but the maid stood still, Oh, Oh, ho ! Oh, Oh, ho ! Oh, Oh, ho ! did she so ?
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The miller he kiss'd her ; away she went,
Sing trolly, lolly, lolly, lolly lo ;
The maid was well pleas'd, and the miller content,
Oh ho ! Oh ho ! Oh ho ! was it so ?
He danc'd and he sung, while the mill went clack ;
Sing trolly, lolly, lolly, lolly lo ;
And he cherish'd his heart with a cup of old sack,
Oh ho! Oh ho! Oh ho! did he so ?
THE COBBLERS' HORNPIPE.
From The Dancing Master of 1701, and contained in subsequent editions ;
in vol. i. of Walsh's Oompleat Country Dancing Master.
also
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REIGN OF CHARLES II. TO WILLIAM III.
595
NOBE'S MAGGOT [WHIM OR FANCY].
In The Dancing Master of 1703, this is entitled Nobe's Maggot. In The Devil
to Pay another version is named There was a maid in the West.
There are many tunes of this class, closely resembling each other in character,
and sometimes in actual notes. I think them all to be hornpipes or jigs.
Not having found the words of " There was a maid in the "West," I have
adapted a song in Round about our Coal-fire, or Christmas Entertainments,
4th edit., 1734.
Gaily.
1^^^-^
O you mer - ry souls, Christ-mas is a coming, We shall have flow-ing bowls,
II
Dancing, pip- ing, drumming,
/a-pon and goose, likewise Brawn and a dish of stur - geon.
1
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Then, for your Christmas-box,
Sweet plum-cakes, and money,
Delicate Holland smocks,
Kisses sweet as honey.
Hey for the Christmas ball,
Where we shall be jolly,
Coupling short and tall,
Kate, Dick, Ralph, and Molly.
Then to the hop we'll go,
Where we'll jig, and caper
Cuckolds all a row ;
Will shall pay the scraper :
Hodge shall dance with Prue,
Keeping time with kisses ;
We'll have a jovial crew
Of sweet and smiling misses.
THERE WAS A PRETTY LASS, AND A TENANT OF MY OWN.
This ballad is printed on broadsides with music, under the title of The con-
descending Lass. The air was extremely popular, and introduced into the
following ballad operas : The Beggars' 1 Wedding ; The Jovial Crew ; The G-enerous
Freemason ; Robin Hood ; The Livery Hake ; The Lover his own Rival ; The
Court Legacy ; and The Grub Street Opera.
It is sometimes entitled, A Tenant of my mvn ; and sometimes, 1 had a pretty
girl and a tenant, &c.
2 Q
596
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
Among the songs which were written to it, and attained popularity, are, " Sure
marriage is a fine thing," from The Beggars' Wedding (reprinted in vol. v. of
Watts's Musical Miscellany, 1731), and
" I'm a bold recruiting sargeant,
From London I am come."
The following song on the Italian Opera is from The Livery Ralce, 1733. It
shews that the exclusive patronage of foreign singers by the English aristocracy
is by no means a new national peculiarity. The fashion has become so old that
we may almost hope for a change.
Lightly, and in moderate time.
The I - ta-lian nymphs and swains That a- dorn the op - era stage, With their
How we die up - on their strains, They so sweet -ly do en - gage, With their
fal lal la, Fa la la la la la la. n * * , *
fal lal la, Fa la la la la la la..-' Their ha ha ha ha ha '
With -
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fal lal la, Fa la la la la la la, By their fal lal la, la la la la la la
But I hope the time will come, when their favourers will find,
With their fal, lal, la; fa, la la, la la, la,
They have paid too great a sum to Italian pipes for wind,
With their fal, lal, la ; fa, la la, la la, la.
When English wit again, and merit too shall thrive,
And men of fortune to support that wit and merit strive,
Without ha, ha, ha, &c.
REIGN OF CHARLES II. TO WILLIAM III.
597
COME, AND LISTEN TO MY DITTY.
The old sea song, Come, and listen to my ditty, or The Sailor's Com-
plaint, is to be found in The Universal Musician, and in vol. iv. of The British
Musical Miscellany, published by Walsh. The air is now commonly known as
" Cease, rude Boreas," from a song which, according to Ritson and others, was
written by George Alexander Stevens. It is an amplification of a " Marine
Modley" in Stevens's Songs, Comic and Satyrical, Oxford, 1772.
En the ballad-opera of Silvia, or the Country Burial, printed in 1731, the song,
" On some rock, by seas surrounded," is adapted to the tune, and the old name
is there given as How happy are young lovers ; so, also, in Rolin Hood, 1730.
The title, How happy are young lovers, is derived from the ballad of The
Distracted Sailor ; a copy of which is in the Douce Collection, and a second in
that of Mr. J. M. Gutch. In the latter copy it is said to be to the tune of What
is cfreater joy or pleasure, which carries the air a stage further back.
The Distracted Sailor is a long ballad of ten stanzas. The following are the
fir.st two :
" how happy are young lovers,
When they courtship first begin ;
How their faces do discover
The great pleasure they are in !
When one seems to like the other,
Hand in hand these lovers move,
And with kisses they do smother,
While they prattle tales of love.
Just so Billy, the sailor, courted
Molly, and she was mostly kind ;
For they oft had kiss'd and sported,
Each persuaded was in mind.
She consented for to have him,
He made vows to her again ;
He would wed, if she'd not leave him,
When he did return from Spain," <fcc.
Many other sea-songs were sung to this air. Among them, Glover's ballad of
Hosier's Crhost (commencing, "As near Portobello lying"), and Admiral
Vtrnon's Answer to Admiral Hosier's G-host, " Hosier ! with indignant sorrow."
These are reprinted in HalliwelPs Early Naval Ballads of England.
The following is The Sailor's Complaint :
" Oome, and listen to my ditty,
All ye jolly hearts of gold ;
Lend a brother Tar your pity,
Who was once so stout and bold.
But the arrows of Cupid,
Alas ! have made me rue ;
Sure, true love was ne'er so treated,
As am I by scornful Sue.
When I landed first at Dover,
She appear'd a goddess bright ;
From foreign parts I was just come over,
And was struck with so fair a sight.
On shore pretty Sukey walked,
Near to where our frigate lay,
And altho' so near the landing,
I, alas I was cast away.
When first I hail'd my pretty creature,
The delight of land and sea,
No man ever saw a sweeter,
I'd have kept her company ;
I'd have fain made her my true love,
For better, or for worse ;
But alas ! I cou'd not compass her,
For to steer the marriage course.
Once, no greater joy and pleasure
Could have come into my mind,
Than to see the bold Defiance
Sailing right before the wind,
O'er the white waves as she danced,
And her colours gaily flew :
But that was not half so charming
As the trim of lovely Sue.
598
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
On a rocky coast I've driven,
Where the stormy winds do rise,
Where the rolling mountain billows
Lift a vessel to the skies :
But from land, or from the ocean,
Little dread I ever knew,
When compared to the dangers
In the frowns of scornful Sue-
Long I wonder'd why my jewel
Had the heart to use me so,
Till I found, by often sounding,
She'd another love in tow :
So farewell, hard-hearted Sukey,
I'll my fortune seek at sea,
And try in a more friendly latitude,
Since in yours I cannot be."
The descriptive song of " The Storm," or " Cease, rude Boreas," is printed in
so many collections (in Ritson's English Songs, in the Rev. James Plumtre's
Collection, in The Universal Songster, &c.) that it may suffice here to republish
the first stanza with the tune.
Rather slowly and with expression.
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Cease, rude Bo - reas, blust'ring rai-ler ! List, ye landsmen, all to me I
Messmates, hear a brother sai-lor Sing the dan-gers of the
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From bounding bil - lows, first in mo - tion When the dis - tant whirlwinds
rise, To the tern - pest - troubled o-cean, Where the seas con-tend with skies
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CHESHIRE ROUNDS.
This -is contained in the eleventh and subsequent editions of The Dancing
Master, in the first volume of Walsh's Compleat Country Dancing Master, in
Polly, and other ballad operas.
Mr. George Daniel, in his Merry England, remarks that the only known por-
trait of Dogget, the actor (of coat and badge notoriety), is a small engraving
representing him dancing the Cheshire Round. Mr. Daniel prints one of Dogget' s
play-bills, issued in 1691, and the following, from other bills of the time of
REIGN OF CHARLES II. TO WILLIAM III.
599
William III., shewing how popular the dance then was: " In Bartholomew Fair,
at the Coach-house on the pav'd stones at Hosier-Lane end, you will see a Black
that dances the Cheshire Rounds to the admiration of all spectators. 9 ' " John
Sleepe now keeps the Whelp and Bacon in Smithfield Rounds, where are to be
seen, a young lad that dances a Cheshire Round to the admiration of all people."
A third and similar advertisement was issued by Michael Root.
Cheshire Rounds is one of the tunes called for by " the hobnailed fellows" in
" A Second Tale of a Tub," 8vo., 1715.
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SHROPSHIKE BOUNDS.
From the second volume of The Dancing Master, and the second volume of
Walsh's Compleat Country Dancing Master f
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600
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
GREENWICH PARK; OR, COME, SWEET LASS.
The tune of Greenwich Park is contained in Part II. of The Dancing Master
of 1698, and in all subsequent editions.
In. the first edition of The Beggars' Opera the air is named u Come, sweet
Lass," from the first line of a song which, when printed in ballad form, is some-
times entitled " Slighted Jockey : or Coy Moggy's unspeakable Cruelty." The
words of that song are contained in The Compkat Academy of Complements, 1685,
and in several other collections. The first two stanzas are printed with the air in
all the editions of Pitts to purge Melancholy. It is here presented entire.
Lightly and cheerfully.
Come, sweet lass ! This bon- ny wea-ther Let's to - ge-ther ; Come, sweet
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lass ! Let's trip it on the grass : Ev' - ry - where Poor Jock-ey seeks his
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On our green
The loons are sporting,
Piping, courting,
On our green
The blithest lads are seen ;
There, all day,
Our lasses dance and play,
And every one is gay,
But I, when you're away.
How can I
Have any pleasure
While my treasure
Is not by ?
The rural harmony
I'll not mind,
But, captive like, confin'd,
I lie in shades behind,
'Cause Moggy proves unkind.
There is none
That can delight me,
If you slight me ;
All alone,
I ever make my moan.
Life's a pain
Since by your coy disdain,
Like an unhappy swain,
I sigh and weep in vain.
REIGN OF CHARLES II. TO WILLIAM III. 601
I could be Jemmy can,
Right blythe and jolly ; With pretty Nancy
Melancholy Please his fancy ;
Ne'er should be Jemmy can,
My fatal destiny, Tho' not so blythe a man,
If I might Have his will,
But have my love in sight, Kiss and delight her still,
Whose angel-beauty bright While I on each green hill,
Was ever my delight. Weep and lament my fill.
Have I not, ** I'll not wear
In Moggy's dances The wreath of willow ;
Seen those glances, Floramella,
Which have shot, Charming fair,
And, like a fowler, caught Shall ease me of my care :
My poor heart ? Who can tell,
Yes, and I feel the smart But she may please as well 1
Of Cupid's fatal dart, No longer will I dwell
Since we have been apart. In love's tormenting cell.
HOBBY-HORSE DANCE.
" For, O, for, O, the hobby-horse is forgot." Hamlet, act Hi., sc. 2.
"At Abbot's, or now Paget's, Bromley," says Dr. Plott, " they had, within
memory, a sort of sport, which they celebrated at Christmas (on New- Year and
Twelfth Day), called The Holly-Horse Dance, from a person that carried the
image of a horse between his legs, made of thin boards, and in his hand a bow
and arrow, which, passing through a hole in the bow, and stopping upon a shoulder
it had in it, he made a snapping noise as he drew it to and fro, keeping time with
tho musick. With this man danced six others. . . . They danced the Hays, a and
other country dances. To this Hobby-Horse Dance there also belonged a pot,
which was kept by turns by four or five of the chief of the town, whom they
called Reeves, who pounded cakes and ale to put in this pot ; all people who had
any kindness for the good intent of the institution of the sport, giving pence
a-jiece for themselves and families, and so foreigners too that came to see it;
with which money (the charge of the cakes and ale being defrayed) they not
only repaired their church, but kept their poor too ; which charges are not now
perhaps so cheerfully borne." Natural History of Staffordshire, fol., 1686, p. 434,
There are several hobby-horse dances extant : one in Musictfs Delight on the
Cithren, 1666, in Apollo's Banquet, 1669 to 1693, and in some later collections ;
a second in Pills to purge Melancholy, i. 19, 1719 ; a third in the Antidote to
Melancholy, 1719.
In the Bagford Collection, there is a ballad to the first, entitled " A new ballad
of a famous German Prince [Rupert] and a renowned English Duke [of Albe-
marle], who, on St. James's Day, 1666, fought with a beast with seven heads
called Provinces, not by land, but by water. Not to be said, but sung." It
begins : " There happened of late a terrible fray,
Begun upon our St. James's Day."
The Hay is described by Strutt as a rustic dance, where they lay hold of hands, and dance round in a ring.
602
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
To the second, D'Urfey wrote the song commencing " Jolly Roger Twangdillo,
of Plowden Hall ;" and to the third, " The Yeoman of Kent," commencing
" In Kent, I hear, there lately did dwell
Long George, a yeoman by trade."
The last (slightly altered, and with the addition of tol de rol at the end) is
the tune of the satirical ballad of " The Vicar and Moses," beginning
" At the sign of the Horse, old Spintext, of course,
At night took his pipe and his pot ; "
and, before that, seems to have served for a siniflar attack upon the Reliques ex-
hibited by the Jesuits at the Savoy Chapel in the Strand, entitled " Religious
Reliques ; or, The Sale at the Savoy, upon the Jesuits breaking up their School
and Chapel" (1689). The following is the first stanza :
" juignuy ana ^neerjuiiy.
j) n is ;=q is | |s \ r^
? y- - K.'
1 | 1 |i|,
m d J J
j>-H-J
3 *=*-
=i=
-* J ^ 1
H* * ^ *
f ttri
Last Sunday, by clianee, I en - counter'
V
d with Prance, That man of upright con-ver -
TJHr-isj
~L. ^ i *(
_u
51*
-f =| 1 5j
A I
P 1
r
r
w \ J 3
Who told me such news That
laugh at his sad De-cla - ration. [Tol de rol, de rol, tol de rol
OF ALL THE SIMPLE THINGS WE DO.
The words of this are by D'Urfey, and " made to a comical tune in The
Country Wake" The play of The Country Wake was written by Dogget, the
actor, who bequeathed the annual coat and badge to the Thames watermen. It
was printed in 1696.
The tune is in the second volume of The Dancing Master, and was introduced
into Ttie Beggars' Opera, The Generous Freemason, The Patron, and An Old Man
taught Wisdom*
D'Urfey's song is printed in Pills, i. 250, 1719; and in Watts's Musical
Miscellany, v. 108, 1731. In the latter, entitled "Marriage;" in the former,
'< The Mouse-trap." In The Dancing Master, " Old Hob, or The Mouse-trap."
REIGN OF CHARLES II. TO WILLIAM III.
603
Of all the sim - pie things we do, To rub o - ver a whim-si - cal
-* -
wm
i
5
life, There's no one fol-ly is so true As that ve-ry bad bargain, a wife.
We're just like a mouse in a trap, . . Or rat that is caught in a gin ; We
^rr ^j iiJ =p
^S
start and fret, and try toes - cape, And rue the sad hour we came in.
I gam'd and drank, and play'd the fool,
And a thousand mad frolicks more ;
I rov'd and rang'd, despis'd all rule,
But I never was married before.
Tlds was the worst plague could ensue,
I'm mew'd in a smoky house ;
I used to tope a bottle or two,
But now 'tis small beer with my spouse !
My darling freedom crown'd my joys,
And I never was vex'd in my way ;
If now I cross her will, her voice
Makes my lodging too hot for my stay.
Like a Fox that is hamper'd, in vain
I fret out my heart and soul,
Walk to and fro the length of my chain,
Then am forc'd to creep into my hole.
MAD MOLL.
There are two versions of this tune in The Dancing Master. The first appeared,
under the name of Mad Moll, in Part II. of the edition of 1698 ; the second,
under that of The Virgin Queen, in the edition of 1703. Both were retained in
all editions issued after these dates.
Doan Swift's song, " Oh ! my Kitten, my Kitten ! " was written to the second
version, which Allan Ramsay (in printing the song in the fourth volume of the
Tea Table Miscellany, 1740), calls Yellow Stockings.
604
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
" Oh ! my Kitten ! " was also printed in The Trader's Garland, with an
" Answer from the Bishop to the Dean," beginning
" O my sweet Jonathan, Jonathan,
O my sweet Jonathan Swifty ;"
and " The Dean's Answer to the Bishop," to the same tune.
Mad Moll was introduced into Gay's ballad-opera of Polly, and is mentioned
in the popular ballad of "Arthur o'Bradley's Wedding," written by a Mr. Taylor,
early in the present century. In Momus turned Falulist, 1729, instead of Mad
Moll, the old name is given as " Shall I be sick for love ? "
Having printed The Virgin Queen, or Yellow Stockings, in my first collection,
the earlier version is now, for variety, subjoined.
Jigs and bagpipe hornpipes of this class became so much alike towards the end
of the seventeenth and early part of the eighteenth centuries, that it is un-
necessary to multiply specimens.
The first stanza of " Arthur o'Bradley's Wedding " is printed to the tune.
It will be found entire in Songs and Ballads of the Peasantry of England, by
J. H. Dixon.
m^
Come, neighbours, and lis- ten a -while, If ev - er you wish to smile, Or
Of a lad whose fame did re-sound Thro' ev -e-ry village and town, For
i
"' p"*jj 1
rn i
r*^J j J J r-H K
~^^ ' * J J
hear a true sto- ry of
fun or fro - lie or
J J
old, At -
whim, None
p :
^ ' J * ' J '^-^-
tend to what I now un - fold , And his
ev - er was e - qual to him,
1 P = F :|| i
J 1
H= F r ^IM
name it was Ar - thur of Brad - ley, O rare Ar - thur of Brad - ley !
Won-der-ful Ar - thur of Brad - ley, Sweet Ar-thur of Brad -ley, O.
J .
=
REIGN OF CHARLES II. TO WILLIAM III.
605
PORTSMOUTH.
This tune is contained in the eleventh and subsequent editions of The Dancing
Master.
I have not succeeded in finding the words, although there appears but little
doubi; of its having been a ballad- tune, perhaps to some sailor's parting with
his love at Portsmouth.
The following words were written to the air by Mr. John Oxenford :
Moderate time, and with expression.
The dread - ed hour, my dear Love, Comes to us at last, Yet
=3=
I, by ling' - ring here, love, Hold the mo - merits fast.
1
In spite of all I'll cher - ish A fix'd and last- ing joy,
^
rT>v--
I i 1
1
1
--
dreai
n too bright to
EF=|^
per - ish,
1 i
Th
ne w
i
11 not
... |. ,
-
troy.
<d
: ^1
^=3 i
I
'
L . J_
J
: | H
Vain thought ! the moments fly, love,-
All are nearly gone ;
Alas ! too soon shall I, love,
Find myself alone.
But still my eyes to seek thee
Will wildly gaze around :
Hard heart, will nothing break thee ?
Art with iron bound ?
Nay, do not bid me hope, love,
Hope I cannot bear ;
Nay, rather let me cope, love,
Boldly with despair.
Should thoughts that may deceive me
Within my heart be nurs'd ?
No, leave me, dearest leave me,
Now I know the worst.
606
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
COURTIERS, COURTIERS, THINK NOT IN SCORN.
This song is found in broadsides, with music, about the date of 1695. The
first stanza only of the words is printed in the New Academy of Complements,
1694 and 1713.
Gracefully.
3Mf^
Courtiers, Courtiers, think not in scorn If poor sil-ly swains in love should be,
.Ui _,
^Efi
9 -
Love lies hid in
rags
all torn, As well as in silks and bra - ve - ry,
P^-j
-
__p_
f jj* f
kTl
F=f^ 3E ^=1
^
And the
|
be
1 T J '
la
r j^ j ^
ss as dear As
: p p
J . ^ ^ 3 i -
he that hath thou - sands
{ 5, ? 1
;ggar doth love his
.
3
3E
i 1 E
E ^^ M
thou - sands, thou - sands, iTe that hath thou - sands pounds a year
^
Content's the thing that mortals doth bless,
And better far than a golden mine ;
In Mary I the world possess,
And at no other's lot repine.
Sweet Mary to me in careless hair
Has treasures far more taking, taking,
Than they that tow'rs and di'monds wear.
State and pomp no happiness brings,
A lower place more joys doth prove ;
For Lords and Ladies, Princes and Kings,
With all on a level are in love.
And pretty brown Mary, making hay,
Hath charms as killing, killing, killing,
Always as killing charms as they.
NEW WELLS.
This tune is contained in Walsh's New Country Dancing Master. It seems to
have been made out of Come, sweet Lass, ante p. 600.
There were formerly several places of public amusement called New Wells in
the vicinity of London : New Wells at Richmond, 1698 to 1760 ; New Wells at
Islington, 1712 to 1740 ; New Wells " near the London Spaw," Clerkenwell,
1739-40 ; and New Wells at the bottom of Leman Street, Goodman's Fields.
KEIGN OF CHARLES II. TO WILLIAM III.
607
Of these the Wells at Islington (sometimes called the New Tunbridge Wells)
seem to have attained the highest repute.
" In 1733," says Mr. George Daniel, " their Royal Highnesses the Princesses
Amelia and Caroline frequented them in the summer time, for the pleasure of
drinking the waters. They have furnished a subject for pamphlets, plays, songs,
and medical treatises, by N. Ward, George Colman the elder, Bickham, Dr. Hugh
Smith, &c. Nothing now remains of them but the original chalybeate spring,
which is still preserved in an obscure nook." (Merrie England, ii. 31.)
Although the neighbourhood is now "poverty-stricken and squalid," even
within the memory of Mr. Daniel "beautiful tea-gardens" encompassed the site.
The tune of New Wells is essentially vocal, and is probably that of some
favorite song which was sung at the gardens. The name, however, gives no clue
to the words, and I have not met with it under any other.
The following lines were written to the air by the late George Macfarren :
Gracefully and smoothly.
See the love-ly rose, Nature's own e - lect - ed, Queen of
each par-terre Smiling sweet and fair. See the love-ly rose, cull'd to be neg -
- lect - ed, Such is beau- ty scarcely worth our
care.
Hark ! yon joyous bird, morning's light awakes him ;
Warbling, free and pure, up he mounts secure r
Hark ! yon joyous bird lo ! a shot o'ertakes him
Such is life be ours more calm and sure.
Taste this crystal stream, oft by pilgrims chosen,
Born of summer show'rs, kiss'd by sweetest flow'rs :
Taste this crystal stream, purer still when frozen
Such is truth, my fair, and such be ours.
608
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
THE DUSTY MILLER.
This is contained in the first volume of Walsh's Compleat Country Dancing
Master and in The Lady's Banquet, published by Walsh ; also in a manuscript
which was recently in the possession of the late Andrew Blaikie, of Paisley, and
there entitled Binntfs Jigg.
It has been said that the tune of The Dusty Miller is contained in Queen
Elizabeth's Virginal Book, but I believe it to be only one of the many random
assertions that have been made about the contents of that manuscript. The
Virginal Book contains tunes that have similar accent (such as The Carman's
Whistle), but after turning over every page, I found no Dusty Miller.
Cheerfully.
f f i]
ANGLO-SCOTTISH SONGS. 609
ANGLO-SCOTTISH SONGS.
BUFORE closing this division of the book, it may be desirable to devote a short
space to the subject of the English and Anglo- Scottish songs and tunes which are
incorporated in collections of Scottish music. They who have not enquired into
the subject may not be aware that many of the songs of Allan Ramsay, Burns,
and other Scotch poets, were written to English tunes, and that those tunes, being
now known by the names of their songs, pass with the world for Scotch.
Ritson tells us, in his Historical Essay on Scotch Song, that " the vulgar
language of the lowland Scots was always called English by their own writers
till a late period," and that "the vulgar toung in Scottis" meant Gaelic or
Erse. The quotations he adduces carry the proof down to the first half of the
sixteenth century; but, in the early part of the eighteenth, this use of the
word " English " was altogether dropped, and " Scots Sangs " included not only
songs written by Scotchmen, whether in the lowland dialect or in English, but
also the meaning was extended to any purely English songs that were popular
in Scotland. As the works of Scotch poets are now sometimes included under
the 1 ead of English literature, where the preponderance is English, so Allan
Ramsay entitled his Tea Table Miscellany " a collection of Scots Sangs," the
preponderance in the two first volumes (of which the work originally consisted)
being Scotch. Although it was soon extended to three volumes, and the third
was entirely English, still the exclusive title of " Scots Sangs " was retained.
In 1740 a fourth was added, partly consisting of Scotch and partly of
English. In this are twenty- one songs by Gay, from The Beggars' Opera, ranged
consecutively.
It would have been a great assistance to after-enquiry if Ramsay had confined
his selection to songs by Scotch authors, instead of thus mixing up those of the
two countries ; and it would have been more easy to separate the respective tunes
if he had in all cases given the names by which they were previously known.
How far this was required to divide the English from the Scotch will be best
exemplified by supplying the names of the tunes to half a dozen of Ramsay's
own tongs.
" My mither's ay glowran o'er me," to the country dance of A Health to
Betty; " The maltman comes on Monday," to the tune of Roger de Coverley ;
" Pe^;gy, I must love thee," to the tune of The Deel assist the plotting Whigs f
a "T ie Deel assist the plotting Whigs " is the first line and the music alone in Mustek's Handmaid, Part II., 1689,
of "Th ^ Whigs' lamentable condition ; or, The Royalists' as "a Scotch tune," composed by Purcell. In Pills to
resolution: To a pleasant new tune." The words and purge Melancholy, Vol. I., 1699 to 1714, the song of "Tom
music are contained in 180 Loyal Songs, 1685 and 1694, and Will were Shepherd Swains" is adapted to the air.
610 ANGLO-SCOTTISH SONGS.
composed by Purcell ; " The bonny grey-ey'd morn begins to peep," to the tune
of "an excellent new Play-house song, call'd The bonny grey etfd morn, or Jockey
roused with love" composed by Jeremiah Clark ; " Corn riggs are bonny," to the
tune of Sawney was tall and of noble race, a song in D'Urfey's play, The Virtuous
Wife; * Nanny 0," to the tune of the English ballad of Nanny 0.*
If this kind of scrutiny were carried through the songs in the Tea Table
Miscellany, in Thomson's Orpheus Oaledonius, or any other collection, the bulk of
Scottish music would be sensibly diminished ; but, on the whole, it would gain in
symmetry. Many good and popular tunes would be given up, but a mass of in-
different would be rejected at the same time.
The mixture of English and Anglo-Scottish with the genuine Scottish music
has been gradually increasing since Thomson's time. Successive collectors have
added songs that were popular in their day, without care as to the source whence
they were derived; each seeking only to render his own publication more
attractive than those of his predecessors. The songs of English musicians
often of living authors have been thus included, and their names systematically
suppressed. Although the authorship of these songs may have been known to
many at the time of publication, it soon passed out of memory, and the Scotch
have themselves been deceived into a belief in their genuineness. Thus Burns,
writing to Mr. Candlish, in June, 1787, about Johnson's Scots Musical Museum,
says, " I am engaged in assisting an honest Scotch enthusiast, a friend of mine,
who is an engraver, and has taken it into his head to publish a collection of all
our songs set to music, of which the words and music are done by Scotsmen."
And again, in October, to another correspondent, "An engraver, James
Johnson, in Edinburgh, has, not from mercenary views, but from an honest
Scotch enthusiasm, set about collecting all our native songs" &c. And yet,
within the first twenty-four songs of the only volume then published, are com-
positions by Purcell, Michael Arne, Hook, Berg, and Battishill.
Thomson's Orpheus Oaledonius was printed in London ; but the Scots Musical
Museum was published in Edinburgh.
Although the popularity of Scottish music in England cannot be dated further
back than the reign of Charles II. , b it may be proved, from various sources, that
English music was in favour in Scotland from the fifteenth century, and that
many English airs became so popular as at length to be thoroughly domiciled
This ballad and the answer toit are in the Roxburghe * It is difficult to account wholly for this, but it may be
Collection. The first (ii. 415) is " The Scotch wooing of attributed partially to the prejudice against the Scotch, who
Willy and Nanny: To a pleasant new tune, or Nanny, O." were long viewed as interlopers, and somewhat to their
Printed by P. Brooksby. Although entitled "The Scotch broad dialect ; for, although they would naturally sing
wooing," it relates to the most southern part of North- the airs of their country, I cannot find that any attained
umberland. It commences, "As I went forth one morn- popularity in England before the Restoration, either by
ing fair," and has for burden notices of dramatists and other writers, by being used as
" It is Nanny, Nanny, Nanny O. ballad tunes, or by being found in print or manuscript.
The love I bear to Nanny O, I should say that one or two airs are the most that could
All the world shall never know be adduced. The upper classes of both countries seem
The love I bear to Nanny O." to have sung only scholastic music, and the lower order of
Tynemouth Castle is spelled "Tinmouth" in the ballad, English had abundant ballad tunes of their own, and were
just as it is now pronounced in the North of England ; it apparently loth to change them.
is, therefore, probably, of Northumbrian origin. The
answer is in Rox. ii. 17; also printed by Brooksby.
ANGLO-SCOTTISH SONGS. 611
there. The "Extracts from the accounts of the Lords High Treasurers of
Scotland," from the year 1474 to 1642, printed by Mr. Dauney, shew that there
were English harpers, lutenists, pipers, and pipers with the drone, or bagpipers,
among the musicians at the Scottish Court, besides others under the general
name of English minstrels. Among the sweet songs said to be sung by the
shepherds in Wedderburn's Gomplainte of Scotlande, 1549, are several English still
extant (one composed by Henry VIII. taking precedence on the list) ; and the
religious parodies, such as in Ane Compendious Booke of Godly and Spirituall
Songs, are commonly upon English songs and ballads. English tunes have hitherto
bee a found in every Scottish manuscript that contains any Scotch airs, if written
before 1730. There is, I believe, no exception to this rule, at least I may cite
all those I have seen, and the well-authenticated transcripts of others. They
include Wood's manuscripts ; the Straloch, the Rowallan, and the Skene MSS. ;
Dr. Leyden's Lyra- viol Book ; the MSS. that were in the possession of the late
Andrew Blaikie; Mrs. Agnes Hume's book, and others in the Advocates'
Library; those in the possession of Mr. David Laing, and many of minor note.
Some of the Scotch manuscripts contain English music exclusively. I have
recently analyzed the contents of Hogg's Jacobite Relics of Scotland, and find
half the songs in the first volume to have been derived from English printed
collections, but if the modern were taken away and only the old suffered to
remain, the proportion would be much larger. As Hogg took these songs from
Scotch manuscripts, his book shews the extent to which the words of old English
son^s are still stored in Scotland. The appendix of Jacobite songs, and those
of che Whigs at the end of the volume, are almost exclusively from these
collections.
Before the publication of Ramsay's Tea Talk Miscellany, the " Scotch tunes"
thai; were popular in England were mostly spurious, and the words adapted to
them seem to have been invariably so. Of this I could give many instances, but
it may suffice to quote one from A second Tale of a Tub, which being printed in
1715, is within nine years of Ramsay's publication. "Each party call for
particular tunes . . , the blue bonnets" (i.e., the Scotch) "had very good voices,
but being at the furthest end of the room, were not distinctly heard. Yet they
split: their throats in hollowing out Bonny Dundee, Valiant Jockey, Sawney was a
dandy lad, [bonny lad?] and 'Twas within a furlong of Edinborough toion"
Bonnie Dundee commences thus :
" Where gott'st thou the haver-meal bannock ? [oatmeal cake]
Blind booby, canst thou not see ?
Ise got it out of the Scotchman's wallet," &c.
The subject of the ballad is "Jockey's Escape from Dundee," and it ends, "Adieu
to bonny Dundee," from which the tune takes the title of Adew Dundie in the
Skene manuscript, and of Bonny Dundee in The Dancing Master, It first
appeared in the latter publication in a second appendix to the edition of 1686,
printed in 1688. "Valiant Jockey's march'd away," and " 'Twas within a
2 R
612 ANGLO-SCOTTISH SONGS.
furlong of Edinborough town," are by D'Urfey; and " Sawney was a bonny lad " a
by P. A. Motteux, the tune by Purcell.
Songs in imitation of the Scottish dialect seem to have been confined to the
stage till about the years 1679 and 1680, b when the Duke of York, afterwards
James II., was sent to govern Scotland, pending the discussion on the Exclusion
Bill in the Houses of Parliament. The Whigs were endeavouring to debar him
from succession to the throne, as being a Roman Catholic, while the most influential
Scotch and the English loyalists, then newly named Tories, were as warmly
espousing his cause.
Among the ballad- writers, the royalists greatly preponderated, and the Scotch
were in especial favour with them. Mat. Taubman, the city of London pageant-
writer, was one of these loyal poets. He published many songs in the Duke's
favour, which he afterwards collected into a volume, with " An Heroic Poem," on
his return from Scotland. Nat. Thompson, the printer, collected and published
120 Loyal Songs, which he subsequently enlarged to 180. Besides these, there
are songs extant on broadsides, with music, which are not included in any collec-
tion. Occasional attempts at the Scottish dialect are to be found in all these
sources. Purcell, and other musicians in the service of the court, readily set
such songs to music ; indeed, from the time of the Exclusion Bill until he became
king, James seems to have had all the song-writers in his favour.
Perhaps the earliest extant specimen of a ballad printed in Scotland, may also
be referred to this period; I mean by "ballad" that which was intended to be
sung, and not poetry printed on broadsides, without the name of the tune, even
though such may sometimes have been called " ballets." Of the latter we have
specimens by Robert Sempill, or Semple, printed in Edinburgh as early as 1570 ;
but, as a real ballad, intended to be sung about the country, as English ballads
were, I know none earlier than " The Banishment of Poverty, by his R. H., J. D. A.
[James, Duke of Albany], to the tune of the Last Good Night." It is to be
observed that this is to an English tune, and so are many of the ballads that
were printed in Scotland, some being reprints of those published in London.
Among others in the possession of Mr. David Laing, are " A proper new Ballad
intituled The Gallant Grahames : To its own proper tune, I will away and will not
stay." This is a white-letter reprint of "An excellent new Ballad entituled The
Gallant Grahams of Scotland" a copy of which is in the Roxburghe Collection,
iii. 380, to the same tune. " Bothwell Banks is bonny : Or a Description of the
new Mylne of Bothwell," is to the English tune of Who can blame my woe.
" The Life and bloody Death of Mrs. Laurie's Dog " is " to the tune The Ladies
Daughter" [of Paris properly]. See Evans's Old Ballads. The above are on
Scottish subjects, but there are also reprints of the Anglo- Scottish, such as
" Blythe Jockie, young and gay," (the tune of which is by Leveridge,) and
"Valiant Jockey's march' d away," before mentioned; as well as of purely
a If not this, it must be "Jockey was a dowdy lad," a b I do not include songs like "Sing, home again,
Scotch song by D'Urfey in The Campaigners. There is Jockey," (upon the defeat of the Scottish army,) or others
a Sawney in that song, hut he is the favoured lover. The written against the Scotch, which may contain a few
music was composed hy Mr. Wilkins. words in imitation of the dialect.
ANGLO-SCOTTISH SONGS. 613
English ballads, like "Room, room for a Rover; or An innocent Country Life
prefer' d before the noisy clamours of a restless town. To a new tune :"
" Room, room for a rover,
London is so hot," &c.
The mixture of English music in Scotch collections is not without incon-
venience to the Scots themselves, for an essayist who intends to write about
Scottish music, must either be content to deal in generalities, or he will be liable
to the mistake of praising English music where he intends to praise Scotch.
Dr. Beattie, in one of his published letters, says of the celebrated Mrs. Siddons,
" She loves music, and is fond of Scotch tunes, many of which I played to her
on the violoncello. One of these, She rose and let me in, which you know is a
favorite of mine, made the tears start from her eyes, < Go on,' said she, ' and
you will soon have your revenge ; ' meaning that I should draw as many tears
from her as she had drawn from me " by her acting. (Life of James Beattie ,
LL.D., by Sir W. Forbes, ii. 139.) Dr. Beattie was evidently not aware, that
both the music and words of She rose and let me in, are English. Again, in one
of his Essays, " I do not find that any foreigner has ever caught the true spirit
of Scottish music;" and he illustrates his remark by the story of Geminiani's
having blotted quires of paper in the attempt to write a second part to the tune
of The Broom of Cowdenknows. This air is, to say the least, of very question-
able origin. The evidence of its being Scotch rests upon the English ballad of
The Broom of Cowdenknows, for in other ballads to the same air it is not so
described ; and Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, quotes " the broom, the
bonny, bonny broom," as a " country tune." The frequent misapplication of the
term " Scotch," in English songs and ballads, has been remarked by nearly every
writer on Scottish music, and this air is not upon the incomplete scale, which
is commonly called Scotch. I am strongly persuaded that it is one of those
ballads which, like The gallant Grahams, and many others, became popular in
Scotland because the subject was Scotch. The Broom of Cowdenknows is in the
metre of, and evidently suggested by, the older ballad of New Broom on Hill
(see p. 458). A copy of the original Broom on Hill* may even yet be discovered,
or at least an earlier copy of the tune, and thus set the question at rest.
It is not only by essayists that mistakes are made, for even in historical works
like " Ancient Scottish Melodies from a Manuscript of the reign of James VI.,
WJth an introductory enquiry illustrative of the History of the Music of Scotland,
by William Dauney, F.S.A., Scot.," airs which bear no kind of resemblance to
Scottish music, are claimed as Scotch. Mr. Dauney seems to have been a firm
believer in the authenticity of the collections of Scottish music, and to have thought
the evidence of an air being found in a Scotch manuscript sufficient to prove its
Scottish origin. In such cases dates were to him of minor importance. Thus,
JFranklin is fled away; When the King enjoys his own again; I pray yon, love,
* Broom on hill, according to Laneham, was "ancient" perT. C." T. C. was perhaps the writer of that mamt-
in 1575. The three-part song of Charles the First's reign, script, or one of his intimate friends, otherwise we might
to which I have referred at p. 459, is subscribed " Bassus expect the full name instead of initials.
614 ANGLO-SCOTTISH SONGS.
turn to me ; Macbeth; The Nightingale ; TJie Milking -pail ; Philporter's Lament,
and many others, are set down as airs of "which Scotland may claim the
parentage." As to the Anglo-Scottish and English Northern songs, at the very
opening of his book Mr. Dauney claims five in Pills to purge Melancholy, without
noticing Ritson's counter-statement as to two (yet appropriating them under those
names), or that a third was stated to be a country-dance tune in the book he
quotes. This is indeed driving over obstacles.
The manuscripts from which the " Ancient Scottish Melodies " are derived, are
known as the Skene Manuscripts, from having been in the possession of the
family of that name. They consist of seven small books of lute music of uniform
size, and are now bound in one. Mr. Dauney admits that a portion of the airs
are English, but follows the Ramsay precedent in the title of his book. I have
recently examined these manuscripts with some care, a and am decidedly of opinion,
both from the writing and from the airs they contain, that they are not, and can-
not be, of the reign of James VI. James VI. of Scotland and I. of England
died in 1625.
As to the sixth manuscript, which Mr. Dauney considers to be " evidently the
oldest of all," the first fourteen airs in the fifth, and the whole of the sixth, are,
in my opinion, in the same handwriting. The music is there written in the
lozenge-shaped note, which is nowhere else employed. Among the airs in the
fifth, we find Adieu, Dundee, which was not included in The Dancing Master
before the appendix of 1688 ; and Three Sheep-skins, an English country-dance
(not a ballad tune), which first appeared in The Dancing Master of 1698. In
the sixth, " Peggy is over the sea with the Soldier," which derives its name from
a common Aldermary churchyard ballad, to which, I believe, no earlier date than
1710 can reasonably be assigned. It is " The Gosport Tragedy : Peggy's gone
over the sea with the Soldier ; " commencing
" In Gosport of late there a damsel did dwell."
When Mr. Dauney expressed his opinion that the sixth was the oldest part, he
was evidently deceived by the shape of the note ; but as round notes were used
in manuscripts in the reign of Henry VIII., it must have been quite a matter of
fancy whether the round or lozenge should be employed one or two centuries later.
My attention has recently been drawn to these manu- died in 1644. Independently of other evidence, the large
scripts, which I had not seen for twenty years, from find- number of duplicates would shew the improbability of
ing, in the course of my attempts at chronological the collection having been made for one person. For
arrangement, that their supposed date could not be instance, "Horreis Galziard" is contained in Parts I.
reconciled with other evidence, I have hitherto quoted and IU. " I left my love behind me," in Parts II. and
the Skene MSS. as about 1630 or 1640, and many of the III. "My Lady Lauckian's Lilt," "Scerdustis," "Scul-
airs they contain are undoubtedly of that date, some, lione," and " Pitt on your shirt on Monday," in Parts III.
like those of Dowland and the masque tunes of James I., and V. " My Lady Rothemais Lilt," in Parts III and VI.
unquestionably earlier, In Mr, Dauney's book, the airs " Blew Breiks," in Parts III. and VII. " I love my love
are not published in the order in whjch they are found in for love again," in Parts V. and VI.
the manuscripts, and some airs (besides duplicates) are This is not the only manuscript, English or Scotch, the
omitted. The printed index is not very correct, for in- age of which I now find reason to doubt. Among the
stance, " Let never crueltie dishonour beauty" is not in- Scotch, that of Mr, Andrew Blaikie, said to bear a date
eluded in it. The earliest writing appears to be " Lady, of 1692, (which I by no means deny, although I did not
wilt thou love me? "at the commencement of Part II. ; but observe it in the book when lent to me,) cannot have
all the remainder of that part seems to be a century later. been written before 1745. It contains "God save the
Pages 62 to 80 are blank. At the end of the first manu- King," and other airs not to be reconciled with the
script are the words " Finis quod Skine," which Mr. usually attributed date.
Dauney considers to be the writing of John Skene, who
ANGLO-SCOTTISH SONGS. 615
The Scotch adhered to old notation a longer than the English, especially in writing
music on six lines. b
I leave it to Scottish antiquaries to determine, whether corroborative evidence
of the date of the manuscripts may not be found among the titles of their own
airs. Mr. Dauney even passed over Lesleys Lilt without a suspicion that it de-
rived its name from the Scotch general in the civil wars. A march and another
air were certainly named after him before the Restoration.
It is curious to mark the difference between English and Scotch writers on the
music of their respective countries ; Dr. Burney, like the fashionable English-
man, minutely chronicling the Italian operas of his day, and hesitating not to
misquote Hall, Hollinshed, and Hentzner, to get rid of the trouble of writing
about the music of England; and the Scotch sturdily maintaining the credit of
Scotland some being intent rather upon putting forth fresh claims than too
nicely scrutinizing those already advanced, if they tell in favour of their country.
It is time, however, that we should have one collection to consist exclu-
sively of Scottish music. Burns and George Thomson confess in their published
correspondence, to having taken any Irish airs that suited them, and even in
Wood's Songs of Scotland, the publisher's plan has been to include all the best
and most popular airs, and not to limit the selection to such as are strictly of
Scottish origin.
The separation of the English and Irish tunes from the Scotch in these
collections, was nominally attempted by Mr. Stenhouse in his notes upon airs in
Johnson's Scots Musical Museum. I say "nominally," for those notes are like
historical novels, wherever facts do not chime in with the plan of the tale,
imagination supplies the deficiencies. Mr. Stenhouse's plan was threefold,
firstly, to claim every good tune as Scotch, that had become popular in
Scotland ; secondly, to prove that every song of doubtful or disputed parentage
came to England from Scotland "at the union of the two crowns;" and,
thirdly, to supply antiquity to such Scotch airs as required it. All this he
accomplished in a way quite peculiar to himself. Invention supplied authors and
dates, and fancy inscribed the tunes in sundry old manuscripts, where the chances
w< re greatly against any one's searching to find them. If the search should be
made, would it not be made by Scotchmen ? Englishmen care only for foreign
music, and do not trouble themselves about the matter; and will Scotchmen
expose what has been done from such patriotic motives ? Upon no other ground
than this imaginary impunity, can I account for the boldness of Mr. Stenhouse's
inventions.
Unfortunately for his fame, two of his own countrymen did not think all this
ingenuity necessary .for the reputation of Scottish music. Mr. David Laing,
therefore, made a tolerably clear sweep of his dates, and Mr. George Farquhar
a I believe it was the retention of the old form of the oldest writing, and differing from any other, in the manu-
let^ er " d " in the musical notation that deceived an acute scripts.
Sec tch antiquary and excellent judge of the age of literary b Witness Mrs. Agnes Hume's book, dated 1704,
mamscripts. In a portion of the tablature it has a stroke e I do not mean the tune which Oswald prints in the
through the top (like the Anglo-Saxon letter which cor- second volume of his Caledonian Pocket Companion under
resi>onds with our th), and this is also found in the title the name of Lasly's March, but the Lesleyes March in
of Lady, wilt thou love me? " which appears to be the Playford's MusicVs Recreation on the Lyra Viol, 1656,
616 ANGLO-SCOTTISH SONGS.
Graham of his quotations from old musical manuscripts. The former supposed
Mr. Stenhouse " mistaken " " deceived ; " the variety of his accomplishments
was not to be discovered at once. The second occasionally administered rebuke
in more explicit language ; but, to the present day, the depths of Stenhouse' s
invention have not been half fathomed.
Some of the effects of his ingenuity will never be wholly obviated. One class
of inventions is very difficult to disprove, where he fixes upon an author for a
song, or makes a tale of the circumstances under which it was written. Such
evidence, as in the case of She rose and let me in, will not always be at hand to
refute him (ante p. 509 to 511), and much of this class of fiction still remains
for those who are content to quote from so imaginative a source.
It is to be hoped that any who may henceforth quote from him will give their
authority, for he has sometimes been copied without acknowledgement, and thus
his fictions have been endorsed by respectable names. a
It is a pleasure to turn from such an annotator, to the editor of Wood's Songs
of Scotland, for, besides exposing a great number of Stenhouse's misstatings, he has
given judgment with strict impartiality wherever he felt called upon to exercise
it in cases of disputed nationality. It is only to be regretted that Mr. Graham's
opinion upon the internal evidence of airs was not more frequently expressed, and
that any portion of Stenhouse's imaginative notes should have been incorporated in
the work. Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between what is on the authority
of Mr. Graham and what of Stenhouse, without having a copy of his notes by our
side ; but all I have had occasion to controvert originated with the latter.
The following two specimens of Anglo- Scottish songs will suffice as examples of
that class of popular music of the olden time.
Although Dauuey's Ancient Scottish Melodies were of which I find any announcement, having taken place
printed in 1838, and Stenhouse's Notes issued in 1839 at Covent Garden, on the 29th Dec., 1702. Stenhouse,
(after having been kept for many years in Messrs. Black- to make his story complete, tells us that Abell died " about
wood's cellars), it is evident that Dauney had access to, the year 1702," although Hawkins (from whom he was
and was one of those led into error by them. As an in- copying so mnch of the story as suited his purpose) says
stance, at p. 17 he says, " It was in the year 1680 when that "about the latter end of Queen Anne's reign, Abell
the Scottish air, Katharine Ogie, was sung by Mr. Abell, was at Cambridge with his lute."
a gentleman of the Chapel Royal, at his concert in Now, why all this invention ? It was to get rid of the
Stationers' Hall." The date of 1680 is purely Sten- fact that the earliest known copy of the tune is in the
housian, and can only have been copied from the follow- Appendix to The Dancing Master of 1686, under the title
ing characteristic specimen of the Notes: " This fine old of " Lady Catherine Ogle, a new Dance." D'Urfey wrote
Scottish song, beginning, ' As I went furth to view the the first song to it, " Bonny Kathern Loggy," com-
plain,' was introduced and sung by Mr. John Abell, a mencing, "As I came down the Highland town."
gentleman of the Chapel Royal, at his concert in Sta- This is contained in the Pills and in The Merry Musician
tioners' Hall, London, in the year 1680, with great or a Cure for the Spleen, i. 224 (1716). The latter publica-
applause. It was also printed with the music and words, tion includes also, the " New song to the tune of
by an engraver of the name of Cross, as a single-sheet Katherine Loggy," commencing, " As I walk'd forth to
song, in the course of that year, a copy of which is now view the plain" (i. 295), which Ramsay, after making
lying before me." In the first place, Cross did not en- some alterations, printed in the Tea Table Miscellany.
grave in 1680, and the single-sheet song, "Bonny The following is the first stanza of what Stenhouse terms
Kathern Oggy, as it was sung by Mr. Abell at his con- the " fine old Scottish song," sung by Abell :
sort in Stationers' Hall," bears no date. Abell was a " As I went forth to view the spring,
gentleman of the Chapel Royal during the latter part of Upon a morning early,
the reign of Charles II. and the whole of that of James II, With May's sweet scent to chear my brain,
Having turned Papist when James became King, he When flowers grew fresh and fairly;
quitted England at the Revolution of 1688, but was A vary pratty maid I spy'd,
permitted to return by William III., towards the Sha shin'd tho' it was foggy,
close of the year 1700. From that time, being without I ask'd her name, Sweet sir, sha said,
any fixed employment, and having acquired great repute My name is Kathern Oggy.
as a singer, he occasionally gave public concerts, the first,
ANGLO-SCOTTISH SONGS.
617
FAIREST JENNY.
This is included in Scotch collections, under the name of Fife and a' the lands
about it. The words were written by P. A. Motteux, and the music by Samuel
Akeroyd. It was first printed in The Gentleman's Journal, of Jan., 1691-2,
under the title of " Jockey and Jenny, a Scotch song set by Mr. Akeroyde." In
the letter which precedes it, Motteux says, " I do not doubt but you will like the
tune, and that is generally the more valuable part of our English Scotch songs, it
being improper to expect a refin'd thought and expression in a plain light
humour."
It was also printed in The Banquet of Music, Book 6, 1692 ; and in Apollo's
Banquet, 7th edit., 1693 ; in Pills to purge Melancholy, vol. i. of early editions,
ani vol. iii. of the last.
The name of Fife and a? the lands about it, is taken from the first line of the
second stanza.
Moderate time and well marked.
Jockey.
Jenny.
I I I
Fair- est Jen- ny, thou mun love me. Troth, my bon - ny lad, I do.
mm
i
=^f
Jockey. * '
Gin thou sayst thou dost ap - prove me, Dear-est thou mun kiss me too.
=
- m ?
9 .
===
j^r ' *
Take a kiss or twa, dear Jock-ey, But I dare give nean, I trow ;
mL
Fie, nay, pish, be not un-luc-ky Wed me first, and aw will do.
IS-
Jockey. For aw Fife, and lands about it Jockey. Thou wilt die if I forsake thee.
Ize not yield thus to be bound. Jenny. Better die than be undone.
Jenny. Nor I lig by thee without it Jockey. Gin 'tis so, come on, Ize taak thee,
For twa hundred thousand pound. Tis too cauld to lig alone.
618 ANGLO-SCOTTISH SONGS.
SAWNEY WAS TALL AND OF NOBLE RACE.
This is one of Tom D'Urfey's songs, in his comedy of The Virtuous Wife,
4 to., 1680. I have not seen any copy bearing the name of a composer; but, as
other music in this play (such as " Let traitors plot on," and the chorus, " Let
Caesar live long") was composed by Farmer, this may also be reasonably
attributed to him.
Playford printed it, in 1681, in the third book of his Choice Ayres, as
" a Northern song ; " but he also printed She rose and let me in, in the fourth
book of the same collection, as a Northern song, although the music was un-
doubtedly composed by Farmer, and D'Urfey was, as in this case, the author of
the words. The fact of their appearing in that collection is sufficient to prove
that they were compositions of the time, for not only are the Choice Ayres pro-
fessedly " the newest ayres and songs, sung at Court and at the publick theatres,
composed by several gentlemen of his Majesty's musick, and others," but, also,
Playford, in reference to this very third book, expresses great indignation that
any of the songs should be thought to be ballad-tunes. That they became so
subsequently, was beyond his control.
Two of Farmer's airs have already been printed in this volume ; and others
which became popular on the stage, may yet be traced to him. Farmer was an
excellent musician and particularly successful as a melodist. He was originally
one of the waits of London, which may account for his having paid more attention
to rhythmical tune than others who were educated in the Chapels Royal,
or the Cathedral schools. In 1684, after having attained some repute as a
composer for the theatres, he was admitted to the degree of Bachelor in Music at
the University of Cambridge. He died at an early age, and the estimation in
which he was held by his contemporaries may be judged by the elegy which was
written upon his death by Tate, to which Purcell composed the music. a
Sawney ivas tall soon became popular as a penny ballad, and some other ballads
and political squibs were written to the tune.
In the Roxburghe Collection, ii. 223, is a sequel to Sawney was tall, entitled
" Jenny's Answer to Sawny, Wherein Love's cruelty is requited; or, The in-
constant Lover justly despised. Being a relation how Sawney being disabled and
turn'd out of doors by the Miss of London, is likewise scorned and rejected by his
Country Lass, and forced to wander where he may," &c. " To the tune of
Sawney will ne'er le my love again." Printed for P. Brooksby, at the Golden
Ball, &c. It begins
"When Sawney left me he had store of gilt, He's come for another sark and band,
But he hath spent it in London town, And coakses me for more of my coin,
And now is return'd to his sun-burn'd face, But Ise, guid faith, shall hold my hand,
His own dear joy in a russet gown : For Sawney shall never more be mine."
The " Elegy upon the death of Mr. Thomas Farmer, Whose artful strains and tuneful lyre
B.M.," is printed in the second volume of the Orpheus Made the spring bloom, and did the groves inspire.
Britannicus. As Dr. Burney most strangely omits all What can the drooping sons of art
mention of Farmer, it is here subjoined : From this sad hour impart
" Young Thirsis' fate, ye hills and groves, deplore ! To charm the cares of life and ease the lover's smart ?
Thirsis, the pride of all the plains, While thus in dismal notes we mourn
The joy of nymphs and envy of the swains, The skilful shepherd's urn,
The gentle Thirsis is no more! To the glad skies his harmony he bears,
What makes the spring retire, and groves their songs And as he charmed earth, transports the spheres."
Nature for her lov'd Thirsis seems to pine ; [decline ?
ANGLO-SCOTTISH SONGS. 619
In the same Collection, ii. 254, is another, printed by Brooksby, " The Poet's
Dream, Or the great outcry and lamentable complaint of the land against
Bayliffs and their Dogs : wherein is expressed their villanous out-rages to poor
men, with a true description of their knavery and their debauch'd actions, pre-
scribed and presented to the view of all people. To the tune of Sawney, &c."
The first line is " As I lay slumbering in a dream."
Among the political ballads are (Rox. ii. 109) " The Disloyal Favourite ; or
The Unfortunate States-man :
Who seeks by fond desire for to climb, For Fortune is as fickle as the wind
May chance to catch a fall before his time, To him that wears a proud ambitious mind.
Tune of Sawney will ne'er be my love again" It begins
" Tommy was a Lord of high renown, But he, like an ungrateful wretch,
And he was rais'd from a low degree ; Did set his conscience on the stretch,
He had command ore every town ; And now is afraid of Squire Ketch,
There was never one so great as he : ForTommy will ne'er be belov'd again."
This is on some nobleman who was charged with being " concerned with France,"
itnd " some say concern' d in the plot." Printed for W. Thackeray, T. Passinger,
and W. Whitwood.
In Mr. Gutch's collection is a broadside entitled " The Loyal Feast designed
to be kept in Haberdashers' Hall on Friday, 21 April, 1682, by His Majesty's
most loyal true blue Protestant subjects, and how it was defeated. To the tune
of Saivney will never be my love again" London, printed for Allan Banks, 1682.
This commences
" Tony was small but of noble race, He broached his taps, and it ran apace
And was beloved of every one ; To make a solemn treat for all : "
and it was reprinted, with another to the same air, in N. Thompson's collection
of 180 Loyal Songs, 1685 and 1694.
The tune is found in the Choice Ayres and Loyal Songs, above quoted ; in The
.Dancing Master, from 1686 to 1725 ; in Apollo's Banquet, 1690 and 1693 ; in
the ballad-operas of Polly, The Village Opera, The Devil to pay, The Chamber-
naid, &c. The words are contained in D'Urfey's New Collection of Songs and
Poems, 8vo., 1683; and both words and music are in every edition of Pillsto
purge Melancholy.
In all the above-named works, the tune takes its name from D'Urfey's song,
except in The Dancing Master, where it is named Sawney and Jockey,* but
evidently by mistake. It is nowhere called Corn riggs are bonny, until after the
publication of Allan Ramsay's song, commencing, " My Patie is a lover gay," in
r,he Tea Table Miscellany. Ramsay does not say that his song is "to the tune
of" Corn riggs are bonny, but gives that title to his song.
Stenhouse would have us believe that there was " a much older Scottish song "
of " Corn riggs " to this tune than Ramsay's, but the four lines he gives are
evidently a parody of the four last of Ramsay's song. b He does not condescend
Sawney and Jockey is another song of D'Urfey's in his song to a new tune." There are two songs to the tune in
i>la.y of The Royalist. It commences with the line, " Twa 180 Loyal Songs, pages 282 and 365 ; and Mat. Taubman's
bonny lads were Sawney and Jockey," and it was printed " Jockey, away man " (printed with his "Heroic Poem")
as a penny ballad by Brooksby, in 1682, with the tune. is to the same.
A copy is in the Roxburghe Collection, iii. 913, "The b This is one of Stenhouse's favorite remedies for defi-
Scotch Lasses Constancy; or, Jenny's Lamentation for cient evidence of antiquity. He produces some "original
he death of Jockey, who for her sake was unfortunately words," stating them to be of the age required to meet
tilled by Sawney in a duel. Being a most pleasant new the necessities of the cnse, but they rarely tally with
620
ANGLO- SCOTTISH SONGS.
to give any proof of this antiquity, but tells us that " the tune appears in Craig's
Collection, in 1730," and that " Craig was a very old man when he published his
collection."
Whether Craig was old or young I will not dispute, but he certainly took the
titles of the tunes in his collection from the Tea Table Miscellany. Out of thirty-
five tunes that he published, twenty-nine agree with the names in that work,
and this is the total number that could agree, for there are no songs in it to
the remaining six.
Moderate time, and smoothly.
Saw - ney was tall, and of no - ble race, And lov'd me bet -terthan
kiifizT;
a - ny yen, But now he 'loves 'an - o - ther lass, And Saw-ney '11 ne'er be my
1
~N
i H
K 1 -I-
r r~F f
B -1 ^
h L:
i J J
-
u r * f -^
L
love a - gen. I gave him a fine Scotch sark and band ;
I
>
=* -ft- %
cs
[- is
C3I
c-
r
3
1
I
1 =
J
1
- J EE
\-
put them on with mine own hand; I gave him "
gave him land, Yet Saw - ney'll ne'er be my love a - gen.
-d=J r-
1_sq . u_
=S h=
Q
=^ d F
information derived from other sources. Francis Semple, of which Francis Semple is the supposed author. Again,
of Beltrees, is one of his favorite scapegoats in these as to Logan Water, in Flora, Svo., 1729, it is named "The
cases. He gives him the credit, among other songs, of Logan water is so deep," which is not at all like the words
Maggie Louder. Now, in the ballad-opera of The Beggar's Stenhouse gives. It would be easy to multiply instances
Wedding, 2nd edit., 8vo., 1729, it is called " Moggy Law- of this kind,
ther on a day," which does not at all agree with the song
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II. 621
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
(1702 TO 1745.)
D'Urfey, to whose songs I have so frequently had occasion to refer in
the preceding pages, was a poet and dramatist who flourished about 1675 to
1720. His father was a Protestant, who fled from Rochelle before the
memorable siege in 1628, and settled at Exeter, where, in 1649, Tom was born. a
He was intended for the law, a profession very uncongenial to his own taste, and
for which he was disqualified by an impediment in his speech ; but this did not
affect him in singing. In his 27th year he produced his comedy, The Fond
Huxband, or The Plotting Sisters* which " was honoured with the presence of
King Charles H. three of the first five nights," and had a long-continued success.
It was frequently revived, and three editions were printed during the author's
life, viz : in 1678, 1685, and 1711. Tom tried his hand at tragedy, but the bom-
bast of his heroic verse met with little encouragement. The success of The Plot-
ting Sisters was the turning point of his fortune, by leading to his introduction
at Court. It was well known that Charles II. liked no music to which he could
not beat time ; and, as the rhythm most easily marked was that of dance and
ballad tunes, D'Urfey accommodated his songs to the royal taste by writing them
to airs of that class, or in such metres as might enable composers to adopt a
similar style of composition. Before his time, it had been a rule with English
poets, especially the greater, to select metres that should effectually prevent their
son^s being sung to ballad tunes ; and for that reason, those songs are rarely, if
ever, heard in the present day. The exceptions are almost invariably those to
which music has been composed at comparatively recent dates. Since D'Urfey's
time, English poets have generally pursued the old course, but the Scotch have
acted otherwise. They sang D'Urfey's songs, adopted many of the tunes,
their poets wrote other words to them, and continue, to the present day, to write
to airs of a similar class. " Roy's Wife of Aldivalloch," " Caller Herrin,"
"Auld lang syne," and numberless others, are taken from books of Scottish
dance music, printed during the latter half of the last century ; and many of the
mont pathetic airs were originally quick tunes of the same kind. If English poets
wish their songs to endure, the safest course will be to follow the example of Tom
D'l Frfey, and of the Scotch. Dibdin's sea songs are already fading from memory,
because he composed music to them, instead of writing to airs which had stood
the test of time.
His mother was probably an Englishwoman, for Tom b It was licensed June 15th, 1676, and, according to the
Brov n addresses D'Urfey in one of his satires, as "Thou Biographia Dramaiica, published in that year. After
cur! half French, half English breed." D'Urfey's death it was revived in 1726, 1732, and 1740.
622 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
D'Urfey printed five collections of his own songs, and many of the same were
afterwards included in Pills to purge Melancholy. In the first two collections are
various songs which were " sung to the King ;" indeed, wherever Charles went,
D'Urfey seems to have been engaged to entertain him. " Quoth John to Joan,"
or " I cannot come every day to woo ;" " The Spinning Wheel," (" Upon a sun-
shine summer's day") ; " Pretty Kate of. Edinburgh ;" and " Advice to the
City," are among those which were sung to the King at Windsor. The last
commences " Remember, ye Whigs, what was formerly done,
Remember your mischiefs in Forty and One ; "
and D'Urfey tells us, in the Pitts, that the King held one part of the paper, and
sang it with him. Others were heard at Newmarket, at Winchester, " at his
entertainment at my Lord Conway's," and one " sung to the King and Queen,
upon Sir John Moor's being chosen Lord Mayor."
D'Urfey was one of those who wrote panegyrics upon James, when Duke of York,
and congratulatory verses upon his return from Scotland. In the preface to the
Pills, he boasts of having " performed some of his own things before their
Majesties, King Charles II., King James, King William, Queen Mary, Queen
Anne, and Prince George of Denmark ;" and that, on such occasions, he never
quitted them " without happy and commendable approbation." He also wrote
a " Vive le Roy" for George the First, and " A new song on his happy accession
to the crown ;" but Tom was then grown old, and we have no proof of his having
been in favour with that Monarch. Moreover, the King could not have approved,
if he knew, of a song which D'Urfey is said to have written upon his mother, the
Princess Sophia, Electress and Duchess Dowager of Hanover. This was to please
Queen Anne, by complimenting her upon her youth at the expense of the
Princess, who was next heir to the crown, and no great favorite with Queen Anne,
as excluding her brother from the succession. The Queen is said to have given
D'Urfey fifty guineas for singing it.
" The crown's far too weighty Has grown so unsteady
For shoulders of eighty, She can't hold a sceptre ;
She could not sustain such a trophy, So Providence kept her
Her hand, too, already Away, poor old Dowager Sophy."
Hone's Table Book, p. 560.
A very amusing sketch of the life of D'Urfey will be found in Household Words,
in which the writer quotes a note to The Dunciad, to prove that Tom was the last
English poet who appeared in the streets attended by a page. The popularity
of his songs in the country is alluded to by Pope, in a letter dated April 10, 1710.
He says :
"I have not quoted one Latin author since I came down, but have learned without
book a song of Mr. Thomas D'Urfey's, who is your only poet of tolerable reputation
in this country. He makes all the merriment in our entertainments, and, but for
him, there would be so miserable a dearth of catches, that I fear they would put
either the parson or me upon making some for 'em. Any man, of any quality, is
heartily welcome to the best topeing-table of our gentry, who can roar out some
rhapsodies of his works. . . . Alas, sir, neither you with your Ovid, nor I with my
REIGN OP QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II. 623
Statins, can amuse a whole board of Justices and extraordinary 'Squires, or gain one
hum of approbation, or laugh of admiration! 'These things,' they would say, 'are
too studious, they may do well enough with such as love reading, but give us your
aiicient poet, Mr. D'Urfey." (Pope's Literary Correspondence, Curll, i. 267.)
The secret of D'Urfey's popularity as a song- writer, lay in his selection of the
tunes. He trenched upon the occupation of the professed ballad-writers, by
adopting the airs which had been their exclusive property, and by taking the
subjects of their ballads ; altering them to give them as his own. If the reader will
compare Martin Parker's " Milkmaid's Life " with D'Urfey's " Bonny Milkmaid "
(ante pp. 295, 297), he will see how these transformations were effected; and
there are many similar examples in the Pills.
Perhaps no man was ever so general a favorite with his contemporaries as
Tom D'Urfey. His brother poets pleaded for him in his old age, and, by their
good offices and those of the actors, he was rescued from the effects of the im-
providence which has been proverbial with men of his class. Steele and Addison
were his great friends, and equally urged his claims upon the public. Addison,
on the occasion of a play to be acted for D'Urfey's benefit, wrote in these
words : " He has made the world merry, and I hope they will make him easy
as long as he stays among us. This I will take upon me to say, they cannot
do a kindness to a more diverting companion, or a more cheerful, honest, good-
natured man."
The Londoner who enters St. James's Church from Jermyn Street will see a stone
with this inscription : " Tom D'Urfey : Dyed Feb 1 ^ y e 26th, 1723." The stone
has been removed to the back of the church, for within my recollection, it stood
by the principal entrance. The following " Epitaph upon Tom D'Urfey" is from
Miscellaneous Poems ly several hands, i. 6. 1726 :
" Here lyes the Lyrick, who, with tale and song,
Did life to three score years and ten prolong ;
His tale was pleasant and his song was sweet,
His heart was cheerful but his thirst was great.
Grieve, Reader, grieve, that he too soon grew old,
His song has ended, and his tale is told."
The only great use which had been made of old tunes by the upper classes
before D'Urfey's time (except for dancing) was for political songs or lampoons,
and they were continuously employed for those purposes to the middle of the last
cencury, and occasionally at later dates. Lady Luxborough says in a letter to
Shtnstone, " It is the fashion for every body to write a couplet to the same tune
(viz., an old country dance) upon whatever subject occurs to them, I should say
upon whatever person, with their names to it. Lords, gentlemen, ladies, flirts,
scholars, soldiers, divines, masters, and misses, are all authors upon this occasion
and also the objects of each other's satire." (Monthly Review, liv., 62.)
la the petition of Thomas Brown, by Sir Fleetwood Shepherd, he thus alludes
to their frequent use in his day :
624 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
" E'en D'Urfey himself, and such merry fellows,
That put their whole trust in tunes and twangdillos,
May hang up themselves and their harps on the willows ;
For, if poets are punished for libelling-trash,
Jo. Dryden, at sixty, may yet fear the lash." t
Political songs were mainly kept alive by the mug-houses in London and West-
minster, and many of the songs sung at those clubs were afterwards collected and
published. The author of A Journey through England in 1724," says,
"In the city of London, almost every parish hath its separate club, where the
citizens, after the fatigue of the day is over in their shops and on the Exchange, un-
bend their thoughts before they go to bed. But the most diverting or amusing of all
were the mug-house clubs in Long Acre, Cheapside, &c., where gentlemen, lawyers,
and tradesmen, used to meet in a great room, seldom under a hundred.
" They had a president, who sate in an armed chair some steps higher than the rest
of the company, to keep the whole room in order. A harp played all the time at the
lower end of the room ; and every now and then one or other of the company rose
and entertained the rest with a song, and (by the by) some were good masters. Here
was nothing drank but ale, and every gentleman had his separate mug, which he
chalked on the table where he sate, as it was brought in ; and every one retired when
he pleased, as from a coffee-house.
" The rooms were always so diverted with songs, and drinking from one table to
another to one another's healths, that there was no room for anything that could sour
conversation.
" One was obliged to be there by seven to get room, and after ten the company
were for the most part gone.
" This was a winter's amusement, agreeable enough to a stranger for once or twice,
and he was well diverted with the different humours when the mugs overflow.
" On King George's accession to the throne, the Tories had so much the better of
the friends to the Protestant succession, that they gained the mobs on all public days
to their side. This induced this set of gentlemen to establish mug-houses in all the
corners of this great city, for well-affected tradesmen to meet and keep up the spirit
of loyalty to the Protestant succession, and to be ready upon all tumults to join their
forces for the suppression of the Tory mobs. Many an encounter they had, and many
were the riots, till at last the Parliament was obliged by a law to put an end to this
city strife ; which had this good effect, that upon the pulling down of the mug-house
in Salisbury Court, for which some boys were hanged on this Act, the city has not
been troubled with them since." (Malcolm's Manners and Customs, p. 532.)
Political songs seem to have been the only kind of poetry in general favour,
after the reign of Queen Anne. Horace Walpole writes to Richard West, in
1742,
" 'Tis an age most unpoetical ; 'tis even a test of wit, to dislike poetry : and though
Pope has half a dozen old friends that he has preserved, from the taste of last
century, yet, I assure you, the generality of readers are more diverted with any
paltry prose answer to old Marlborough's Secret History of Queen Mary's Robes. I do
not think an author would be universally commended for any production in verse
unless it were an Ode to the Secret Committee, with rhymes of ' liberty and property,'
' nation and administration.' " (Correspondence, i. 100.)
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II. 625
The cultivation of music among gentlemen began to decline in the reign of
Charles II., slowly but progressively. The style of music in favour in his day
required less cultivation than the contrapuntal part-writing of earlier times.
Play ford remarks that " of late years all solemn and grave music has been laid
aside, being esteemed too heavy and dull for the light heels and brains of this
nimble and wanton age." Salmon, writing in 1672, attributes its decline to
the intricate and troublesome nature of the clefs, and says, that " for ease sake,
many gentlemen gave themselves over to whistling upon the flageolet, and fiddling
upon the violin, till they were so rivalled by their lacquies and barbers' boys that
they were forced to quit them, as ladies do their fashions when the chambermaids
have inherited their old clothes." (Essay to the Advancement of Music, p. 36.)
Among ladies, the cultivation seems to have remained in nearly the same
state as before. In "The Levellers: A Dialogue between two young ladies
concerning Matrimony," (4to., 1703), Politica, who is a tradesman's daughter ?
describing her education at a boarding school, says, she " learned to sing, to play
on the base-viol, virginals, spinnet, and guitair." Here we find the base-viol
still in use by ladies ; and again, in Vanbrugh's play, The Relapse, " To prevent
all misfortunes, she has her breeding within doors; the parson of the parish
teaches her to play on the base-viol, the clerk to sing, her nurse to dress, and her
father to dance." (Act i., sc. 1.) Nevertheless, some opposition to its use had
existed long before, for Middle ton, in his Roaring Girl, says, " There be a
thousand close dames that will call the viol an unmannerly instrument for a
woman."
The dancing schools of London are described by Count Lorenzo Magalotti,
on his visit to England with Cosmo, III. Grand Duke of Tuscany, in 1669. He
says, " they are frequented both by unmarried and married ladies, who are
instructed by the master, and practise, with much gracefulness and agility, various
dances after the English fashion. Dancing is a very common and favorite amuse-
ment of the ladies in this country ; every evening there are entertainments at
different places in the city, at which many ladies and citizens' wives are present,
they going to them alone, as they do to the rooms of the dancing masters, at which
there are frequently upwards of forty or fifty ladies. His Highness had an op-
portunity of seeing several dances in the English style, exceeding well regulated,
and executed in the smartest and genteelest manner by very young ladies, whose
beauty and gracefulness were shewn off to perfection in this exercise." (p. 319.)
And again, " He went out to Highgate to see a children's ball, which, being
conducted according to the English custom, afforded great pleasure to his High-
ness, both from the numbers, the manner, and the gracefulness of the dancers."
The English had long been celebrated for their dancing. " In saltatione et
arte musica excellunt," says Hentzner, describing us in 1598 ; and while a man
mi^ht hope to become Lord Chancellor by good dancing, without being bred to
the law (like Sir Christopher Hatton) , it was certainly worth while to endeavour
to excel. Fletcher, in the opening scene of his Island Princess, to depict forcibly
the pleasure that a certain prince took in the management of a sailing boat,
626 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
likens it to the delight which the Portuguese or Spaniards have in riding great
horses, the French in courteous behaviour, or " the dancing English in carrying a
fair presence." In 1581, according to Barnaby Rich, the dances in vogue were
measures, a galliards, jigs, brauls, rounds, and hornpipes. In 1602, the Earl of
Worcester writes to the Earl of Shrewsbury, " We are frolic here in Court ; much
dancing in the Privy Chamber of country dances before the Queen's Majesty, who
is exceedingly pleased therewith." (Lodge's Illustrations of British History,
ii. 578.) In the reign of James I., Weldon, sneering at Buckingham's kindred,
observes, that it was easier to put on fine clothes than to learn the French dances,
and therefore that " none but country dances" must be used at Court. This was
not quite correct, for although country dances were most in fashion, others were
not excluded. At Christmas, 1622-3, after the masque, "the Prince" (after-
wards Charles I.) " did lead the measures with the French Embassador's wife.
The measures, braules, corrantos, and galliards, being ended, the masquers with
the ladies did daunce two country dances, where the French Embassador's wife and
Mademoysal St. Luke did daunce." (Malone, from a MS. in Dulwich College.)
In the reigns of Charles II. and James II., country dances continued in much
the same use. They were the merriment after the first formalities of the evening
had worn off. In The Mysteries of Love and Eloquence, or The Arte of Wooing
and Complimenting, by Edward Philips (Milton's nephew), there is a chapter on
" The Mode of Balls," which opens with the following speech from the dancing
master: " Come, stir yourselves, maidens, 'twill bring a fresh colour into your
cheeks ; rub hard, and let the ladies see their faces in the boards," &c. ; to which
Bess, who has not yet been properly tutored, replies, " And, by the mass, that
will I do, and make such fine drops and curtsies in my best wastecoat, that they
shall not chuse but take notice of me ; and Sarah shall dance a North-country jigg
before 'em, too: I warrant it will please the ladies better than all your French
whisks and frisks. I had rather see one freak of jolly milkmaids than all that will
be here to-night." After some directions as to what should be done, the dancing
master says, " Ladies, will you be pleased to dance a country dance or two, for
'tis that which makes you truly sociable, and us truly happy; being like the
chorus of a song, where all the parts sing together."
I have mentioned more particularly the subject of country dances, because the
fashion of dancing our national dance, has extended, at various times, to every
court in Europe. Yet we English have so great a mania for catching at the
first foreign word that resembles our own, and immediately settling that ours
must have been derived from it, that, let but one person propose such a derivation,
there will always be plenty to follow, and to vouch for it upon their own responsi-
bility. From this the country dance has not escaped.
I cannot tell to whom the brilliant anachronism of deriving it from " Contre-
danse " is due, for, although asserted very positively by three contemporaneous
The measure was a grave and solemn dance, with John Davies says,
slow and measured steps, like the minuet. To tread a "Yet all the feet whereon these measures go
measure was the usual term, like to walk a minuet. Sir Are only spondees, solemn, grave, and slow.
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II. 627
modern writers, no one of the three condescends to give other authority than
his own.
The late John Wilson Croker, in his Memoirs of the Embassy of Marshall de
Bassompierre to the Court of England in 1626, says, in a note : " Our Country
Dances are a corruption in name, and a simplification in figure, of the French
Cortredanse." Mr. De Quincey, in his Life and Manners, and the late Dr. Busby,
in his Dictionary of Music, tell us the same. The discovery was not made when
Weaver and Essex wrote their Histories of Dancing f in 1710, and 1712, nor
when Hawkins published his History of Music, in 1776. French etymologists have
been equally in the dark, for they have reversed the position. " Ce mot [Contre-
danse] paroit venir de 1'Anglois, country-danse, danse de campagne ; en effet, c'est
au village sur-tout que 1'on aime a se reunir et que 1'on prefere les plaisirs par-
tagos. Le grave menuet, qui n'emploie que deux personnes, et qui ne laisse aux
spectateurs d'autre occupation que celle d' admirer, n'a pu prendre naissance que
dans les villes ou 1'on danse pour amour-propre. Au village 1'on danse pour le
seul plaisir de danser, pour agiter les membres accoutumes a un violent exercise ;
on danse pour exhaler un sentiment de joie qui n'a pas besoin de spectateurs."
(Encyclopedic Methodique: Musique, i. 316, 4to., 1791.)
I have quoted the passage from the Encyclopedic at length, because
M. Framery's reasons are exactly those which account for the long-enduring
popularity of the country-dance. The French contredanse (known in England
by die name of quadrille) cannot be traced to an earlier period than the latter
part of the seventeenth century, and it seems to have originated in the first quarter
of the eighteenth. It is not described by Thoinot Arbeau, or any of the early
French writers on dancing. J. J. Rousseau, Compan (author of the Dictionnaire
de Danse), and other writers of the last century, if they do not give the
etymology, either say that it was danced after minuets, or with gavotte steps,
therefore subsequent to both. The first French dictionary in which I have been
enabled to trace the word, is that of P. Richelet, printed at Amsterdam in 1732.
It is not contained in the Geneva edition of 1680, or in that of 1694.
" Centre " certainly means " opposite," and men stand opposite their partners
in modern country dances, but this was by no means a rule in early times.
There were great varieties of figure, and some of the earliest (such as Bellinger's
Round) were danced in circles, often round a tree or maypole.
la The English Dancing Master of 1651, besides those danced in the modern
way (which are described as "Longways for as many as will"), there are the
following Rounds " for as many as will:" The chirping of the Nightingale ;
Gathering peascods ; If all the world were paper (a still-remembered nursery
son^-) ; Miflfield; Pepper's black; and Rose is white, rose is red. There are also
rounds for four and for eight.
In Dargason (a country dance older than the Reformation) men and women
V eaver says, " Country-dances are a dancing the pe- preface to his Trealiseon Chorography, or the art of dancing
culiaj growth of this nation; tho' now transplanted into Country Dances, 1710, says "This which we call Country
almost all the Courts of Europe." Essay towards the Dancing is originally the product of this nation." Haw-
History of Dancing, 8vo., 1712, p. 170. Essex, in the kins quotes Weaver.
2 s
628 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
stand in one straight line at the commencement; the men together and the
women together.
Fain I would is " a Square Dance for eight," and men and women stand as in
a quadrille, except that the man is on the right of his partner.
Dull Sir John and Hide Parke are also square dances for eight ; and in those
the couples stand exactly as in the modern quadrille. This is the form the
French copied, and with it some of the country-dance figures. To one of these
they gave the name of " Chaine Anglaise."
Although Playford alludes, in his preface, to the dancing of the ancient Greeks,
and to " the sweet and airy activity " of our gentlemen of the Inns of Court (who
were no doubt looking out to become Lord Chancellors) ; he does not mention
French dancing, neither is there one French term in the book.
It is time to protest against Mr. De Quincey's derivation since it has been
quoted in a work of such authority as English, Past and Present, by Richard
Chevenix Trench, B.D. (the present Dean of Westminster), and this book the
substance of lectures delivered to the pupils of King's College, London. I would
add that, to this day, French dances have made no way in English villages. The
amusements of our peasantry are the hornpipe, the country-dance, the jig, and
occasionally the reel.
I have no doubt that, if time permitted me to make the search, I should find
much English dance music in early French collections, as well as in those of other
countries ; for, on a recent visit of a few hours to the Bibliotheque Imperial, in
Paris, three books of lute music were shown to me, a and among the contents
I observed, " Courante d'Angleterre," " Gigue d'Angleterre," "Sarabande
d'Angleterre," "Pavane d'Angleterre" (several), "Galliarda Joannis Doolandi"
(Dowland), " Chorea Anglicana," &c. One of these was a manuscript with a
printed title-page by Robert Ballard, the early French music publisher
(No. 2,660) ; a second, Le Tresor d'Orphee, printed by his widow and son
in 1600. In the preface to the third, I read " Prout sunt illi Anglicani Concentus
suavissimi quiclem, ac elegantes," &c. This was Thesaurus Harmonious divini
Laurencini, Romani. Cologne, 1603. fol.
Playford recommends dancing as making the body active and strong and the
deportment graceful ; but I imagine that when country-dances were danced in
the country, activity and lofty springing were the principal tests of excellence.
The genuine country way was perhaps as described in Rastell's interlude, The
Four Elements, where one of the characters says,
" I shall bryng hydyr another sort And torne clene above the grounde
Of lusty bhiddes, to make dy sport, With fryscas and with gambawdes round,
That can both daunce and spryng, That all the hall shall ryng."
It may have been otherwise at Court, for, as the son^ says,
" There they did dance
As in France,
Not in the English lofty manner."
I am indebted to the courtesy of Mr. Anders, one of catalogues of the library, as in England ; so that, unless
the librarians, for shewing me these books of lute music, a book has been quoted before, it is only by such assist-
and for assisting me in the search after the origin of the ance that it can be discovered.
Contredanse. Readers are not permitted to see the
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II. 629
Now as to jigs and reels. Jigs seem to have been danced at Court until the
crown passed to the house of Hanover. There are jigs named after every king
and Queen from Charles II. to Queen Anne, and many from noblemen of the
Court. I have not observed them enumerated among the dances on state
occasions, and imagine therefore that they were only used for relaxation. Jigs
were also danced upon the stage, for, in the epilogue to The Chances, a play which
the Duke of Buckingham altered from Beaumont and Fletcher, he speaks of
dramatists appropriating to themselves the applause intended for Nell Gwynne,
" Besides the author dreads the strut and mien
Of new-prais'd poets, having often seen
Some of his fellows, who have writ before,
When Nell has danc'd her jig, steal to the door,
Hear the pit clap, and with conceit of that,
Swell, and believe themselves the Lord knows what."
In speaking of the reel it is necessary to include the hay, for dancing a reel is
but one of the ways of dancing the hay.
Strutt describes the hay as " a rustic dance, where they lay hold of hands and
dance round in a ring ; " but I think this a very imperfect, if not an incorrect
delinition. The hay was danced in a line as well as in a circle, and it was by
no means a rule that hands should be given in passing. To dance the hey or
hay became a proverbial expression signifying to twist about, or wind in and
out: without making any advance. So in Hackluyt's Voyages, iii. 200, " Some of
tho mariners thought we were in the Bristow Channell, and other in Silly
Channell; so that, through variety of judgements and evill marinership, we were
fame to dance the hay foure dayes together, sometimes running to the north-east,
sometimes to the south-east, and again to the east, and east north-east." In Sir
John Davies's Orchestra, " He taught them rounds and ivinding heys to tread."*
(In the margin he explains " rounds and winding heys " to be country-dances.)
In The Dancing Master the hey is one of the figures of most frequent occur-
rence. In one country-dance, " the women stand still, the men going the hey
between them." This is evidently winding in and out. In another, two men
and one woman dance the hey, like a reel. In a third, three men dance this
hey, and three women at the same time like a double reel. In Dargason, where
many stand in one long line, the direction is " the single hey, all handing as you
pass, till you come to your places." When the hand was to be given in passing,
it was always so directed ; but the hey was more frequently danced without
" handing." In " the square dances," the two opposite couples dance the single
hey twice to their places, the woman standing before her partner at starting.
When danced by many in a circle, if hands were given, it was like the " grande
cha ine " of a quadrille.
Old dance and ballad tunes were greatly revived at the commencement of the
* ' Thus, when at first Love had them marshalled, As the two Bears, whom the First Mover flings,
As erst he did the shapeless mass of things, With a short turn, about Heaven's axle-tree,
He taught them rounds and winding heys to tread, In a round dance for ever wheeling be."
And about trees to cast themselves in rings :
630 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
reign of George II. through the medium of the ballad-operas. The first of these
was The Beggars^ Opera, which contained the necessary amount of political
satire to suit the taste of the day in song, and was a caricature of Italian operas,
then in the height of fashion. It was first offered to Gibber, at Drury Lane, and
rejected by him, but accepted by Rich, the manager of the Theatre Royal in
Lincoln's Inn Fields, and produced on the 29th of January, 1727-8. It was
written by Gay, the success was extraordinarily great, and it was said, by one of
the wits of the day, to have made Gay rich, and Rich gay. The following account
of it is from the notes to The Dunciad: " This piece was received with greater
applause than was ever known. Besides being acted in London sixty- three days
without intermission, and renewed the next season with equal applause, it spread
into all the great towns of England ; it made a progress into Wales, Scotland, and
Ireland ; the ladies carried about with them the favorite songs of it, on fans ;
houses were furnished with it on screens ; furthermore, it drove out of England,
for that season, the Italian opera, which had carried all before it for ten years."
Lavinia Fenton, who acted the part of Polly, became the toast of the town, and
was soon after married by Charles, third Duke of Bolton.
One of the Miscellaneous Poems by several Hands, published by D. Lewis
(8vo., 1730), is on the success of The Beggars' Opera. It is "Old England's
Garland ; or, The Italian Opera's Downfall. An excellent new ballad, to the
tune of King John and the Allot of Canterbury" and commences thus :
" I sing of sad discords that happened of late,
Of strange revolutions, but not in the state ;
How old England grew fond of old tunes of her own,
And her ballads went up and our operas down.
Derry down, down, hey derry down."
It is again alluded .to in the epilogue to Love in a Riddle,
"Poor English mouths, for twenty years, Sweet sound on languid sense bestow'd
Have been shut up from music ; Is like a beauty married
But, thank our stars, outlandish airs To th' empty fop who talks aloud,
At last have made all you sick. And all her charms are buried.
When warbling dames were all in flames, But late experience plainly shews
And for precedence wrangled, That common sense, and ditty,
One English play cut short the fray, Have ravish'd all the belles and beaux,
And home again they dangled. And charmed the chaunting city."
For the six years that ensued after the production of the Beggars' Opera,
scarcely any other kind of drama was produced on the stage. Even for the
booths in Bartholomew Fair new ballad operas were written, and subsequently
published with the tunes. In many the music was printed in type with the
book ; for others it was engraved and sold separately.
I may here remark that the engraving of music on metal plates seems to have
been practised in England before it was used in Italy, or any other country.
In England it commenced in the reign of James I. Before that time all music
had been printed from moveable types, except perhaps an occasional short spe-
pimen from a wooden block. The two first music engravers were William and
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II. 631
Robert Hole. William engraved Parthenia, a collection of pieces for the Vir-
ginals, dedicated to the Princess Elizabeth, daughter of James I. These were
" composed by three famous masters, William Byrd, Dr. John Bull, and Orlando
Gibbons, Gentlemen of His Majesties Most Illustrious Chappell," and first pub-
lished in 1611. Robert Hole engraved a work of similar character for virginals
and base-viol, under the title of Parthenia inviolata, which was published without
date.
It was, no doubt, the demand for instrumental music, that first suggested the
rosort to engraving, and instrumental music was more cultivated in England than
in any other country. Proofs of this have already been given, but it does not
rt-st wholly upon the testimony of English writers. Many allusions to the ex-
cellence of our instrumentalists might be cited from foreigners, like that of
Giovanni Battista Doni, in his De Prcestantid Musicce veteris, a book written in
dialogue, and printed in 1647. One of the speakers is the advocate of the then
modern music, the other of that of the ancients. On the subject of the tibiae
or pipes of the Greeks, the latter says " The English are allowed to excel on the
flute, and there are many good performers on the cornet in that kingdom, but I
cannot believe them equal to the ancient players on the tibia, such as Antigenides,
Pronomus, and Timotheus." No mention is here made of other instruments than
the flute and cornet, because the discussion is confined to tibiae and their modern
representatives.
The cornet was an extremely difficult instrument to play well. The Lord
Keeper North says of it, " Nothing comes so near, or rather imitates so much,
an excellent voice, as a cornet-pipe ; but the labour of the lips is too great, and
it is seldom well sounded." He adds, that in the churches of York and Durham,
cornets and other wind music were used in the choirs at the Restoration, to
supply the deficiency of voices and organs, but afterwards disused.
Instrumental music was much employed at our theatres, not only in operas,
but also when tragedies and comedies were performed. Orazio Busino, in his
account of the Venetian Embassy to the Court of James L, says, "We saw a
tragedy [at the Fortune Theatre] which diverted me very little, especially as
I cannot understand a word of English, though some little amusement may be
de lived from gazing at the very costly dresses of the actors, and from the various
interludes of instrumental music, and dancing and singing ; but the best treat
was to see such a crowd of nobility, so very well arrayed that they looked like so
many princes, listening as silently and soberly as possible." (Quarterly Review,
October, 1857.)
Down to the time of The Beggars 9 Opera, it had been the custom to perform
three movements of instrumental music, termed " first, second, and third music,"
beibre the commencement of each play. A story is told of Rich, the manager,
who when the customary music was called for by the audience at the first performance
of The Beggars' Opera, came forward and said, " Ladies and gentlemen, there is
no music to an opera" (setting the house in a roar of laughter), "I mean,
ladies and gentlemen, an opera is all music."
632 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
Before 1690, engraving may be said to have been employed only for instru-
mental music. There were a few exceptions, such as Dr. Child's Psalms for three
voices, printed in 1639, and reprinted by Playford in 1650, from the same plates ;
but types were greatly preferred for vocal music, on account of the greater
distinctness of the words. After 1690, the town began to teem with single songs,
printed on one side of the paper, from engraved plates. Every one who had any
knowledge of music, however slight, seemed ready to rush into print, and many
wrote songs and published them to old tunes, a class that old John Playford
would have deemed unworthy of his press.
Among the encomiastic verses prefixed to Dr. Blow's Amphion Anglicus, in
1700, are the following allusions to these publications :
" The mightiest of them cry, ' Let's please the town '
(If that be done, they value not the gown) ;
And then, to let you see 'tis good and taking,
'Tis soon in ballad howl'd, ere mob are waking.
happy men, who thus their fames can raise,
And lose not e'en one inch of Kent Street praise !
But yet the greatest scandal's still behind,
A baser dunce among the crew we find ;
A wretch bewitched to see his name in print,
Will own a song, and not one line his in't !
1 mean of the foundation sad's the case,
He treble writes, no matter who the bass ;
Just like some over-crafty architect,
Would first the garret, then the house erect.
Such trash, we know, has pester'd long the town,
But thou appear, and they as soon are gone."
Although Dr. Blow did appear, these would-be composers did not expire quite
so soon as the writer expected. Perhaps there remain some a little like them
even at the present day.
Another of Dr. Blow's encomiasts says,
" Long have we been with balladry oppress'd ;
Good sense lampoon'd, and harmony burlesqu'd :
Music of many parts hath now no force,
Whole reams of Single Songs become our curse,
With bases wondrous lewd, and trebles worse.
But still the luscious lore goes gliby down,
And still the double entendre takes the town.
They print the names of those who set and wrote 'em,
With Lords at top and blockheads at the bottom :
While at the shops we daily dangling view
False concords by Tom Cross engraven true."
The following are specimens of the popular music of this period.
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II. 633
OLD KING COLE.
The first question that may be asked here, is, " Who was old King Cole ? "
I should say that he was " old Cole " the famous cloth manufacturer, of Reading,
one of "the sixe worthie yeomen of the West;" that his name became pro-
verbial through an extremely popular story-book of the sixteenth century ; and
that he acquired his kingship much in the same manner as another celebrated
worthy, " Old Sir Simon the King."
There was some joke or conventional meaning among Elizabethan dramatists,
wiien they gave a man the name of Old Cole, which it is now difficult to discover.
Gifford supposes it to be a nickname given to Ben Jonson by Dekker, because in
the SatiromasttXj where Horace says, " I'll lay my hands under your feet,
Captain Tucca," Tucca answers, " Say'st thou to me so, old Cole ? come do it,
then;" but Dekker uses it elsewhere when there can be no allusion to Ben
Jonson. In the Second part of The Honest Wliore, Matheo gives the name to
Orlando, who had promised to assist him: " Say no more, old Cole; meet me
arion at the sign of The Shipwreck." Marston, too, in The Malcontent, makes
Malevole apply it to a woman,
" Malevole to Maquarelle. Ha, Dipsas ! how dost thou, old Cole ?
Maquarelle. Old Cole !
Malevole. Ay, old Cole; methinks thou liest like a brand under billets of
gieen wood."
This play was printed in 1604, and dedicated to Ben Jonson, with whom
Marston was then on the most friendly terms. It is true that Ben Jonson, in
Bartholomew Fair, gives the name of Old Cole to the sculler in the puppet-show of
Hero and Leander; but this was first acted in 1614, and Dekker's Satiromastix
printed in 1602.
Perhaps the name originated in the ridicule of some drama upon the story of
The Six worthy Yeomen of the West. " Old Cole " is thus mentioned by
Doloney :
" It chanced on a time, as he [King Henry I.] with one of his sonnes, and divers
of his nobility, rode from London towards Wales, to appease the fury of the Welsh-
man, which then began to raise themselves in armes against his authority, that he
mat with a number of waines loaden with cloth, comming to London; and seeing
them still drive one after another so many together, demanded whose they were; the
w. tine-men answered in this sort : Cole's of Reading (quoth they). Then by and by
tha King asked another, saying, Whose cloth is all this? Old Cole's, quoth hee :
and again anon after he asked the same question to others, and still they answered,
Old Cole's. And it is to be remembered, that the King met them in such a place,
so narrow and so streight, that hee, with the rest of his traine, were faine to stand as
close to the hedge, whilest the carts passed by, the which at that time being in
m mber about two hundred, was neere hand an houre ere the King could get rooine
to be gone : so that by his long stay he began to be displeased, although the ad-
Hi ration of that sight did much qualify his furie ; . . . . and so, soon after, the last wain
pe 3sed by, which gave present passage unto him and his nobles : and thereupon
entring into communication of the commoditie of cloathing, the King gave order at
hn home returne, to have Old Cole brought before his Majestic, to the intent he
634
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
might have conference with him, noting him to be a subject of great ability," &c.
From The Pleasant Historie of Thomas of Reading : or the Sixe worthie Yeomen
of the West. " Now the sixth time corrected and enlarged." London : Printed
by Eliz. Allde for Robert Bird, 1632.
Dr. Win. King, a humourous writer, who was born in 1663, quotes some of
the words of " Old King Cole " in No. 6 of his Useful Transactions ; but he mixes
them up with those of " Four-and- twenty fiddlers all of a row."
" Good King Cole And twice fiddle, fiddle,
And he called for his bowl, For 'twas my lady's birthday ;
And he called for his fiddlers three ; Therefore we keep holyday.
And there was fiddle, fiddle, And come to be merry."
I have no earlier authority for the tune than is to be found in the ballad-
operas. In Gay's Achilles, published in 1733 (after the death of the author), the
song, " No more be coy, give a loose to joy," is to the air of Old King Cole, and
it differs altogether from the way in which it is now commonly sung.
The following version of the air is from Achilles :
Boldly.
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Old King Cole was a merry old soul, And a merry
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call'd for his pipe And he call 'd for his bowl, Andhe call'd for his fid - dlers three.
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Then twedle, twedle, twedle, twedle, twedle went the fid- dlers ; Twedle, twedle, twedle, twedle,
a
twedle, twedle twee, There'snone so rare as can compare To king Cole and his fiddlers three.
i
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The following traditional air bears a slight family likeness to The British
Grenadiers, although the one is major and the other minor.
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
635
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Old King Cole was a merry old soul, Then twang, twang-a-twang, twang-a-twang,
And a merry old soul was he ; (imitating the harp) [went the harper,
He call'd for his pipe, and he call'd for his Twee, tweedle dee, tweedle dee, went the
And he called for his harpers three, [bowl, fiddler,
Ev'ry harper he had a fine harp, And so merry we'll all be.
And a very fine harp had he ;
In the second and subsequent stanzas, the part of the tune which goes to the
line, " Then twee, tweedle dee," &c., must be repeated as required bj the
multiplication of words.
In the third verse, Old King Cole calls for his pipers three, and the words are
the same as before, except the change of the word fiddle or harp for pipe,
Then tootle, tootle too, tootle too, went the piper ;
Twang, twang-a-twang, twang-a-twang, w^ent the harper ;
Tweedle, tweedle dee, tweedle dee, went the fiddler;
And so merry we'll all be.
In the fourth verse he calls for his drummers three,
" Then rub a dub, a dub. rub a dub, went the drummer," &c.
And thus in each verse the strain, with the line, " Twee, tweedle dee," &c., is
repeated as the imitation of the different instruments may require.
636
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
THE ROAST BEEF OF OLD ENGLAND.
This famous old song has been admirably illustrated by Hogarth,* in his picture
of " The gate of Calais " :
" With lanthorn jaws and meagre cut, But soon we'll teach these bragging foes
See how the half-starv'd Frenchmen strut, That Beef and Beer give heavier blows
And call us English dogs, Than soup and roasted frogs."
There are two songs on this subject : the one by Henry Fielding, in his comedy
of Don Quixote in England ; the other by Richard Leveridge, the composer of
the tune.
Fielding's song which was sung to the air of The Queen's old Courtier, consists
of but two verses, and the comedy in which it is contained was published in 1733.
Leveridge's song is printed in Walsh's British Musical Miscellany, and in The
Universal Musician, both undated.
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When mighty roast beef was the Englishman's food, It en - nobled our hearts, and en -
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rich - ed our blood ; Our soldiers were brave and our cour - tiers were good.
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Oh, the roast beef of old Eng - land! And oh, for old England's roast beef!
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H. FIELDING'S SONG.
When mighty roast beef was the Englishman's Then, Britons, from all the nice dainties re-
food, [blood ; frain,
It ennobled our hearts, and enriched our Of effeminate Italy, France, or Spain ;
Our soldiers were brave, and our courtiers And mighty roast beef shall command on the
were good. main.
Oh, the roast beef of old England ! Oh, the roast beef of old England !
And oh, for old England's roast beef! And oh, for old England's roast beef!
Hogarth was very inveterate in his enmity to the shot as a spy, while sketching the gate of Calais.
French, having been seized, and narrowly escaping being
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
637
R. LEVERIDGE'S SONG.
When mighty roast beef was the Englishman's
food, [blood j
It ennobled our hearts, and enriched our
Our soldiers were brave, and our courtiers
were good.
Oh, the roast beef of old England!
And oh, for old England's roast beef!
But since we have learn'd from effeminate
France
To eat their ragouts, as well as to dance,
Wo are fed up with nothing but vain com-
plaisance.
Oh, the roast beef, &c.
Our fathers of old were robust, stout, and
strong, [long,
And kept open house, with good cheer all day
Which made their plump tenants rejoice in
Oh, the roast beef, &c. [this song.
When good Queen Elizabeth sat on the throne,
Ere coffee and tea, and such slip-slops were
known,
The world was in terror if e'en she did frown.
Oh, the roast beef, &c.
In those days, if fleets did presume on the
main,
They seldom or never return 'd back again ;
As witness the vaunting Armada of Spain.
Oh, the roast beef, &c.
Oh, then we had stomachs to eat and to fight,
And when wrongs were cooking, to set our-
selves right ;
But now we're a hm ! I could, but good
night.
Oh, the roast beef of old England !
And oh, for old England's roast beef!
Many other songs have been written to this tune, one in praise of old English
brown beer, and several anti- Jacobite songs ; but the new application of the
fable of the Frog and the Ox, written by Hogarth's friend, Theophilus Forest, as
an illustration for his picture of " The Gate of Calais," must not be omitted.
THE ROAST BEEF CANTATA.
'Twas at the gate of Calais, Hogarth tells,
Where sad despair and famine always
dwells,
A meagre Frenchman, Madame Grand-
sire's cook, [took.
A>s home he steered, his carcase that way
Bonding beneath the weight of famed
Sirloin, [dine,
On whom he'd often wish'd in vain to
Good Father Dominick by chance came
by, [eye ;
With rosy gills, round paunch, and greedy
Who, when he first beheld the greasy
load,
H is benediction on it he bestowed ;
And as the solid fat his fingers press'd,
He lick'd his chaps, and thus the knight
address'd :
" Oh, rare roast beef, lov'd by all man-
If I was doom'd to have thee, [kind,
When dress'd and garnish 1 d to my mind,
And swimming in thy gravy,
Not all thy country's force combin'd
Should from my fury save thee.
Renown'd sirloin, ofttimes decreed
. The theme of English ballad ;
On thee e'en kings have deign'd to feed,
Unknown to Frenchmen's palate :
Then how much more thy taste exceeds
Soup meagre, frogs, and sallad ! "
A half-starv'd soldier, shirtless, pale, and
lean,
Who such a sight before had never seen,
Like Garrick's frighted Hamlet, gaping
stood, [food.
And gazed with wonder on the British
His morning's mess forsook the friendly
bowl, [stole ;
And in small streams along the pavement
He heav'd a sigh which gave his heart
relief, [grief :
And then in plaintive tone declared his
638
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
" All ! sacre Dieu ! vat do me see yonder,
Dat look so tempting red and vite ?
Begar it is de roast beef from Londre ;
Oh, grant to me von litel bite !
But to my pray'r if you give no heeding,
And cruel fate dis boon denies,
In kind compassion unto my pleading,
Return, and let me feast mine eyes ! "
His fellow guard, of right Hibernian clay,
Whose brazen front his country did betray,
From Tyburn's fatal tree had thither fled,
By honest means to gain his daily bread,
Soon as the well-known prospect he de-
scry'd,
In blubb'ring accents dolefully he cried :
" Sweet beef, that now causes my stomach
So taking thy sight is, [to rise,
My joy that so light is, [my eyes.
To view thee, by pailsfull, tears run from
While here I remain, my life's not worth a
Ah, hard-hearted Lewy, [farthing ;
Why did I come to ye ?
The gallows, more kind would have sav'd
me from starving."
Upon the ground, hard by, poor Sawney
sate, [pate ;
Who fed his nose, and scratch'd his ruddy
But when old England's bulwark he
espy'd, [aside :
His dear lov'd mull, alas! was thrown
With lifted hands he blest his native place,
Then scrubb'd himself, and thus bewail'd
his case :
" How hard, Sawney, is thy lot,
Who was so blithe of late,
To see such meat as can't be got,
W T hen hunger is so great.
Oh, the beef! the bonny, bonny beef!
When roasted nice and brown ;
I wish I had a slice of thee,
How sweet it would gang down !
Ah, Charley ! hadst thou not been seen,
This ne'er had happ'd to me :
I wou'd the de'il had pick'd mine ey'n,
Ere I had gang'd with thee.
Oh, the beef," &c.
But, see my muse to England takes her
flight !
Where health and plenty socially unite ;
Where smiling freedom guards great
George's throne, [not known.
And whips, and chains, and tortures, are
That Britain's fame in loftiest strains
should ring,
In rustic fable give me leave to sing.
(Tune of "The Roast Beef of Old England")
As once on a time, a young frog, pert and
vain, [plain,
Beheld a large ox grazing on the wide
He boasted his size he could quickly
attain.
Oh, the roast beef of old England !
And oh, the old English roast beef !
Then eagerly stretching his weak little
frame, [old dame,
Mamma, who stood by, like a knowing
Cry'd, Son, to attempt it you're surely to
Oh, the roast beef, &c. [blame.
But deaf to advice, he for glory did thirst,
An effort he ventur'd more strong than
the first, [him burst.
Till swelling and straining too hard, made
Oh, the roast beef, &c.
Then, Britons, be careful, the moral is
clear, [sieur ;
The ox is old England, the frog is Mon-
WTiose threats and bravadoes we never
need fear,
While we have roast beef in old England.
Sing oh, for old England's roast beef !
For while by our commerce and arts we
are able, [table,
To see the sirloin smoking hot on our
The French must e'en burst, like the frog
in the fable !
Oh, the roast beef, &c.
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
639
POOR ROBIN'S MAGGOT.
This tune is contained in the second volume of The Dancing Master ; in
Pills to purge Melancholy, i. 132, 1719; in The Beggars' Opera', The Grenerous
Fnemason, and other ballad- operas. It is also known in the present day as one
of ' The Lancers Quadrilles."
In The Dancing Master it is named Poor Robin's Maggot ; in the Pills and
ballad-operas, " Would you win a young virgin of fifteen years." This is from
a song by D'Urfey, in his play of Modern Prophets, 4to., 1709.
The words in The Beggars' Opera, " If the heart of a man is deprest with
cares," are still occasionally sung to the air ; but I have here adopted the song
in The Grenerous Freemason (8vo., 1731), one of the ballad-operas performed at
Bartholomew Fair.
The words carry out the adage that " faint heart never won fair lady."
s Lightly and Cheerfully.
P
m
When you court a young virgin of six-teen years, You may banish your sorrows, your
m
33
grifs and cares : Your whining and pining will ne - ver, ne-ver, Steer you to harbour Then
=?:
^rs?r
ce;se your fears. Pleasure and joy let our face a-dorn, Be live - ly and gay as a
*
summer's morn, Push home your af-fairs or you e-ver, e -ver, Justly will mer-itthe fair one's scorn.
iP^
640
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
BLACK-EYED SUSAN.
This still popular song was composed by Leveridge, author of The roast beef
of Old England, and of several other favorite songs. He was a bass singer at the
Theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields ; and, when more than sixty years of age, still
thought his voice so good that he offered for a wager of a hundred guineas to sing
a bass song with any man in England. The tune is very like another which he
composed to the words, " Send back my long-strayed eyes ; " and, in both, he
seems to have drawn more on memory than imagination. One of the snatches
sung by Ophelia, in Hamlet, and several other old songs begin in the same
manner.
The words of " Sweet William's farewell to black-ey'd Susan " are by Gay,
and are printed in his Poems, as well as on numerous extant broadsides with
music ; in Watts's Musical Miscellany, iv. 148, &c.
The tune was introduced into The Devil to pay ; The Village Opera ; Robin
Hood,\lW-, The Chambermaid ; The G-rub Street Opera ; The Welsh Opera ; &c.
The same words were set by Henry Carey, and others; but Leveridge's
became the popular tune.
The following version is as it is now sung :
Moderate time.
wav - ing in the wind, When black-eyed Su - san came on board " O where shall
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I my true love
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find ? Tell me, ye jo - vial sai - lors, t
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ell me
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true, If my sweet
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Wil - liam, if
Trf-
my sweet Wil -
Ham
sails a - mong your crew.
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II. 641
William, who, high upon the yard, Yes, yes, believe them when they tell thee so,
llock'd with the billows to and fro, For thou art present wheresoe'er I go.
Soon as her well-known voice he heard,
1T . , , , .,. , , ru j If to fair India s coast we sail,
He sighed, and cast his eyes below : [hands, , , . ,
_,, , ,., /. i i T i i Thy eyes are seen in di monds bright :
The cord slides swiftly through his glowing / *
,L . , T i * x ,T_ i i u - Thy breath is Afric s spicy gale,
And (quick as lightning) on the deck he stands. * v * &
Thy skin is ivory so white.
So the sweet lark, high-pois'd in air, Tlmg eyery beaute ous object that I view,
Shuts close his pinions to his breast, Wakes in my goul some charm of lovely Sue .
(If chance, his mate's shrill voice he hear,)
And drops at once into her nest. Though battle call me from thy arms,
The noblest captain in the British fleet Let not my pretty Susan mourn ;
Might envy William's lip those kisses sweet. Though cannons roar, yet safe from harms,
O Susan, Susan, lovely dear, William sha11 to his dear return -
My vows shall ever true remain : Love turns aside the balls that round me %
Lee me kiss off that falling tear, Lest Precious tears should drop from Susan's
We only part to meet again. eve<
Change as ye list, ye winds ; my heart shall be The boatswain gave the dreadful word,
Th3 faithful compass that still points to thee. The gai]s their swelling bosom spread .
Believe not what the landmen say, No longer must she stay on board :
Who tempt with doubts thy constant mind : They kiss'd, she sigh'd, he hung his head.
They'll tell thee, sailors, when away, Her less'ning boat unwilling rows to land ;
In every port a mistress find. Adieu ! she cries, and wav'd her lily hand.
ADMIRAL BENBOW.
The subject of this ballad is mentioned in Evelyn's Diary, under the date of
January, 1702-3. " News of Vice- Admiral Benbow's conflict with the French
fleet in the West Indies, in which he gallantly behaved himself, and was wounded,
and would have had extraordinary success, had not four of his men-of-war stood
spectators without coming to his assistance ; for this, two of their commanders
were tried by a council of war and executed ; a third was condemned to perpetual
imprisonment, loss of pay, and incapacity to serve in future. The fourth died."
Admiral Benbow was a thoroughly gallant seaman. He received his com-
mission in the navy for his bravery in beating off a corsair, while in command of
a merchant vessel. When the Moors boarded him, they were driven back,
leaving thirteen of their number dead upon his deck. He was twice sent to the
West Indies by King William. On the second occasion, he fell in with the
French Admiral, Du Casse, in August, 1702, near the Spanish coast.
A skirmishing action continued for four days, but on the last the Admiral was
left alone to engage the French, the other ships having fallen astern. Although
thus single-handed, and having his leg shattered by a chain-shot, he would not
sulFer himself to be removed from the quarter-deck (in this respect the ballad
is incorrect), but continued fighting until the following morning, when the
French sheered off. The Admiral made signal for his ships to follow, but his
orders received no attention, and he was obliged to return to Jamaica, where he
caused the officers who behaved so basely, to be tried. The report of the court-
martial will be found in The Harleian Miscellany, vol. i., 4to., 1744. There was
a treasonable conspiracy among the officers of his fleet, not to fight the French.
Admiral Benbow did not long survive this disappointment ; it aggravated the
effects of his wound, and he expired.
642
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUBIC.
This favorite old sea-song is in a collection of penny song-books, formerly
belonging to Ritson ; and, with music, in Dale's Collection, i. 68.
The Rev. James Plump tre wrote " When in war, on the ocean we meet the
proud foe," to the tune. It is published in his collection of songs with
music, 8vo., 1805.
Another song on the death of Admiral Benbow is contained in Halliwell's
Early Naval Ballads of England. It commences,
" Come, all you sailors bold, lend an ear, lend an ear,
Come, all you sailors bold, lend an ear :
'Tis of our Admiral's fame, Brave Benbow call'd by name,
How he fought on the main you shall hear, you shall hear."
The tune of Admiral Benbow is the vehicle of several country songs at the
present time, and used for Christmas carols. In the month of January last, Mr.
Samuel Smith noted it down from the singing of some carollers at Marden, near
Hereford, to the words commencing,
" A virgin unspotted the prophets foretold."
i-"' Rather slowly.
- al, Where we wa-ter'd our ship - ping And then we weigh 'd all.
Full in view on the seas, boys, Se-ven sail we did es - py ; Owe
man- ned our cap - stan, And weigh'd speed - i
f
:
REIGN OP QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II. 643
The first we came up with was a brigantine sloop,
And we ask'd if the others were big as they look'd ;
But turning to windward as near as we could lie,
We found there were ten men of war cruizing by.
Oh ! we drew up our squadron in very nice line,
And boldly we fought them for full four hours' time ;
But the day being spent, boys, and the night coming on,
We let them alone till the very next morn.
The very next morning the engagement prov'd hot,
And brave Admiral Benbow receiv'd a chain shot;
And when he was wounded, to his merry men he did say,
*' Take me up in your arms, boys, and carry me away."
Oh the guns they did rattle, and the bullets did fly,
But Admiral Benbow for help would not cry ;
Take me down to the cockpit, there is ease for my smarts,
If my merry men see me it will sure break their hearts.
The very next morning, by break of the day,
They hoisted their topsails, and so bore away ;
We bore to Port Royal, where the people flock'd much
To see Admiral Benbow carried to Kingston Church.
Come all you brave fellows, wherever you've been,
Let us drink to the health of our King and our Queen,
And another good health to the girls that we know,
And a third in remembrance of brave Admiral Benbow.
i suspect that this was originally a much longer ballad, and that the last
stanza was substituted for the remaining verses at a later date. The story is
only half told, all notice of the treachery of the four captains is omitted, as well
as of their trial, and the death of the Admiral. Perhaps the ballad was thus
curtailed to be sung upon the stage.
DOWN AMONG THE DEAD MEN.
This tune is in the third volume of The Dancing Master printed by Pearson
and Young, Play ford's successors, and in the third volume of Walsh's Dancing
Master.
There are many half-sheet copies of the song with music ; and one that I con-
ceive to be the earliest, commences, "Here's a health to the Queen and a lasting
peace."
In one of the volumes of half-sheet songs in the British Museum (H. 1601,
p. 205), is "A health to the memory of Queen Anne," to the tune of Down among
the dead men. It commences
" Here's a health to the mem'ry of Queen Anne,
Come pledge me ev'ry English man,
For, though her body's in the dust,
Her memory shall live, and must.
And they that Anna's health deny,
Down among the dead men let them lie," &c.
In the same volume is " a song sung by Mr. Dyer, at Mr. Bullock's booth in
Southwark Fair." This is a George I. copy of "Down among the dead men; 99
2 T
644
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
therefore commencing, "Here's a health to the King" &c. A third version
gives " Mr. Robert Dyer's additional stanzas, as sung by him at Lincoln's
Inn Theatre."
The author of the words, whoever he may have been, had in mind the drinking-
song in Fletcher's Bloody Brothers, from which he borrowed two lines,
" Best, while you have it, use your breath,
There is no drinking after death."
The tune of Down among the dead men was a great favorite with the late
Samuel Wesley, who used constantly to fugue upon it.
i
ff
Here's a health to the Queen, and a last-ing peace, To ,. . an end, to
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wealth increase. Come let's drink it while we have breath, For there's no drinking
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af - ter death. And he that will this health de - ny,
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own a-mong the dead men, Down a-mong the dead men, Down, down
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down, down,
Down a-mong the dead men let him Ii
P5
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
645
Let charming beauty's health go round,
In whom celestial joys are found,
And may confusion still pursue
The senseless woman-hating crew ;
And they that woman's health deny,
Down among the dead men let them lie !
[n smiling Bacchus' joys I'll roll,
Deny no pleasure to my soul ;
Let Bacchus' health round briskly move,
For Bacchus is a friend to Love.
And he that will this health deny,
Down among the dead men let him lie.
May love and wine their rites maintain,
And their united pleasures reign,
While Bacchus' treasure crowns the board,
We'll sing the joys that both afford ;
And they that won't with us comply,
Down among the dead men let them lie.
SALLY IN OUR ALLEY.
This extremely popular ballad was written and composed by Henry Carey.
Carey's tune is to be found in his Musical Century, ii. 32 ; in Walsh's Dancing
Master, vol. ii. 1719; in TJie Beggars' Opera; The Devil to pay; The Fashion-
able Lady ; The Merry Collier ; Love in a Riddle ; The Rival Milliners ; and
on numerous half-sheet songs.
The following is the author's account of the origin of the ballad :
'A vulgar error having prevailed among many persons, who imagine Sally
Salisbury the subject of this ballad, the author begs leave to undeceive and assure
them it has not the least allusion to her, he being a stranger to her very name at the
time this song was composed : for, as innocence and virtue were ever the boundaries
of his muse, so, in this little poem, lie had no other view than to set forth the beauty
of a chaste and disinterested passion, even in the lowest class of human life. The
real occasion was this : a shoemaker's 'prentice, making holiday with his sweetheart,
treated her with a sight of Bedlam, the puppet -show T s, the flying-chairs, and all the
elegancies of Moorfields, from whence proceeding to the farthing-pye-house, he gave
her a collation of buns, cheesecakes, gammon of bacon, stuffed beef, and bottled ale,
through all which scenes the author dodged them. Charmed with the simplicity of
their courtship, he drew from what he had witnessed this little sketch of.nature ; but.
being then young and obscure, he was very much ridiculed by some of his acquaint-
ance for this performance, which nevertheless made its way into the polite world, and
amply recompensed him by the applause of the divine Addison, who was pleased more
than once to mention it with approbation."
.Among the songs printed to Carey's tune are the following :
1. " Sally's Lamentation; or, The Answer to Sally ;" beginning
" What pity 'tis so bright a thought I little thought, when you began
Should e'er become so common ; To write of charming Sally,
At ev'ry corner brought to naught That ev'ry brat w^ould sing so soon,
By ev'ry bawling woman. ' She lives in our alley.' "
2. " Sally in our Alley to Billy in Piccadilly ; with proper graces to the tune."
"Of all the lads that are so smart He is the darling of my heart,
There's none I love like Billy; And he lives in Piccadilly," &c.
8. " Sally in her own cloaths ; " beginning
" Of all the mauxes in the land
There's none I hate like Sally."
4. " Sally rivall'd by Country Molly ; " commencing
" Since Sally's charms so long have been Pray give me leave to raise the Bong
The theme of court and city, And praise a girl more pretty."
646
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
5. " Blowzabel. A Song ;" commences
" Of Anna's charms let others tell, My song shall be of Blowzabel,
Of bright Eliza's beauty ; To sing of her's my duty."
6. " As Damon late with Chloe sat."
There are many more printed to Carey's tune, but the above suffice to shew
how very popular it was ; and yet, about 1760, it was discarded. " Sally in our
Alley " is now only sung to the much older ballad- tune of The Country Lass. It
is difficult to account for this, except from the extended compass of voice which
Carey's air required. The two ballads were concurrently popular. " The Vir-
tuous Country Lass " was engraved, as a single song, by Cross, as well as printed
in The Merry Musician. Both tunes were introduced in The Devil to pay, &c.
The following is the ballad with Carey's music :
Slowly and gracefully.
smart,
heart,
There's none like
And lives in
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pret
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ty Sal-ly;
al - ley.
There's ne'er a la - - dy in the
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that's half so sweet
as Sal - ly, She is the
Y~*~
dar - ling of my heart, And lives
fT
al - ley.
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO QEOEQE II.
647
The following is the tune to which the words have been sung for nearly a
century. By comparing it with the older version of The Country Lass, at p. 376,
t le reader will see what variations time has made.
Slowly and gracefully.
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girls . . that are so
dar - - ling of my
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heart, And
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none like pret-ty
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half so sweet as
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Her father he makes cabhage-nets,
And through the streets does cry them ;
Her mother she sells laces long,
To such as please to buy them :
But sure such folks could ne'er beget
So sweet a girl as Sally ;
She is the darling of my heart,
And lives in our alley.
When she is by, I leave my work,
I love her so sincerely ;
My master comes, like any Turk,
And bangs me most severely :
But let him bang, long as he will,
I'll bear it all for Sally;
She is the darling of my heart,
And lives in our alley.
Of all the days are in the week,
1 dearly love but one day,
And that's the day that comes betwixt
A Saturday and Monday :
For then I'm dress'd in all my best,
To walk abroad with Sally ;
She is the darling of my heart,
And lives in our alley.
My master carries me to church,
And often I am blamed,
Because I leave him in the lurch,
Soon as the text is named :
I leave the church in sermon time,
And slink away to Sally ;
She is the darling of my heart,
And lives in our alley.
648
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
My master and the neighbours all,
Make game of me and Sally,
And but for her I'd better be
A slave, and row a galley :
But when my sev'n long years are out,
Oh, then I'll marry Sally,
And then how happily we'll live
But not in our alley.
When Christmas comes about again,
O then 1 shall have money ;
I'll hoard it up, and box and all,
I'll give unto my honey :
I would it were ten thousand pounds,
I'd give it all to Sally ;
She is the darling of my heart,
And lives in our alley.
Incleclon sang only the first, second, fourth, and last verses.
AS DOWN IN THE MEADOWS.
This pretty and graceful song is to be found in The Merry Musician, or
A Cure for the Spleen, ii. 129 ; in Watts's Musical Miscellany, i. 62 ; and on many
broadsides with music.
The tune was introduced by Gay in his ballad-opera of Polly, 1729 ; also in
The Colliers' Opera, The Court Legacy, The Lovers' Opera, &c.
The same words were afterwards set by Oswald, but he was not successful in his
music. A copy will be found in the Burney Collection.
This is sometimes entitled " Susan's Complaint and Remedy."
Gracefully ', and with expression.
As down in the mea-dows I chanc'd for to pass, O there I be -held a young
Her age, I am sure, it was scarce-ly fif-teen, And she on her head wore a
m
r
beau-ti - ful lass, ^.Her lips were like ru-bies, and as for her eyes, They
gar- land of green..**
sparkled like diamonds, or stars in the skies ; And then, O her voice, it was
r*
^f^\
charn
* * -J 4 \~~*\ ; pi
ling and clear, As sad - ly she sung (or the
1
los
s of her dear.
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c
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II. 649
Why does my love Willy prove false and unkind, But if she believe him, the false-hearted swain
O why does he change like the wavering wind, Will leave her, and then she with me may com-
From one that is loyal in every degree ? plain :
Ah ! why does he change to another from me? For naught is more certain, believe, silly Sue,
In the meadows as we were a making of hay, Who once has been faithless can never be true.
Oh there did we pass the soft minutes away ; ghe finished her song> ftnd roge to be
And then was I kiss'd and set down on his knee, when oyer thg meadow came jolly young John>
No man in the world was so loving as he. who told her that she wag the JQy of hig ^
But now he has left me, and Fanny the fair And if she'd consent, he would make her his
Employs all his wishes, his thoughts and his wife : [went }
care ; She could not refuse him, to church so they
He kisses her lip as she sits on his knee, Young Willy 'sforgot,and young Susan's content.
And says all the sweet things he once said to Most men are like Willy, most women like Sue,
me : If men will be false, why should women be true ?
O MOTHER, A HOOP !
To this tune Gibber wrote the song " What woman could do, I have tried, to
be free," for his ballad-opera of Love in a Riddle, 1729. It is also printed in
The Merry Musician, ii. 7.
In The Livery Rake, 1733, the air takes the name of Gibber's song ; but in
Damon and Phillida, 1734, it is entitled Mother, a hoop !
There are two versions of " Mother, a hoop ! " the one as a song, the other
" A Dialogue between Miss Molly and her Mother about a hoop." A copy of
the latter will be found in one of the collections in the British Museum (H. 1601,
p. 532). It consists of ten stanzas, commencing thus :
Daughter. " What a fine thing have I seen to-day,
Mother, a hoop :
I pray let me have one, and do not say nay,
O Mother, a hoop."
Mother. " You must not have one, dear Moll, to be sure,
For hoops do men's eyes and men's hearts so allure,
No, Molly, no hoop, no hoop,
No, Molly, no hoop."
Daughter. " Dear Mother, let women wear what, they will, 0, &c.
Men's eyes and men's hearts will be roving still ; 0, &c.
Whether decently clothed or sluttishly dress' d,
Some men prefer these and others the rest. 0, &c.
Men wear lac'd hats and ladies lac'd shoes,
Men with canvas and whalebone do stiffen their clothes,
Then why should the men the ladies abuse
For applying the same things, and to the same use.
Pray hear me, dear Mother, what I have been taught
Nine men and nine women o'erset in a boat,
The men were all drown'd, but the women did float,
And by help of their hoops they all safely got out," &c.
In some of the broadsides with music, the tune is attributed to Mr. Brailford.
The following is the first stanza of the song :
648
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
My master and the neighbours all,
Make game of me and Sally,
And but for her I'd better be
A slave, and row a galley :
But when my sev'n long years are out,
Oh, then I'll marry Sally,
And then how happily we'll live
But not in our alley.
When Christmas comes about again,
O then 1 shall have money ;
I'll hoard it up, and box and all,
I'll give unto my honey :
I would it were ten thousand pounds,
I'd give it all to Sally ;
She is the darling of my heart,
And lives in our alley.
Incledon sang only the first, second, fourth, and last verses.
AS DOWN IN THE MEADOWS.
This pretty and graceful song is to be found in The Merry Musician, or
A Cure for the Spleen, ii. 129 ; in Watts's Musical Miscellany, i. 62 ; and on many
broadsides with music.
The tune was introduced by Gay in his ballad-opera of Polly, 1729 ; also in
The Gobblers' Opera, The Court Legacy, The Lovers' Opera, &c.
The same words were afterwards set by Oswald, but he was not successful in his
music. A copy will be found in the Burney Collection.
This is sometimes entitled " Susan's Complaint and Remedy."
Gracefully, and with expression.
As down in the mea-dows I chanc'd for to pass, O there I be -held a young
Her age, I am sure, it was scarce-ly fif-teen, And she on her head wore a
beau-ti - ful lass, .Her lips were like ru-bies, and as for her eyes, They
gar- land of green..*"
sparkled like diamonds, or stars in the skies ; And then, O her voice, it
p^
i , ii
charming and clear, As sad - ly she sung for the
1
-m^=i=i=*^-
loss of her dear.
K
i^ i
i f
i J
1 ' J 4
I i
~m
J *
L
r
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II. 649
Why does my love Willy prove false and unkind, But if she believe him, the false-hearted swain
O why does he change like the wavering wind, Will leave her, and then she with me may com-
From one that is loyal in every degree? plain :
Ah I why does he change to another from me? For naught is more certain, believe, silly Sue,
In the meadows as we were a making of hay, Who once has been faithless can never be true.
Oh there did we pass the soft minutes away ; she finighed her sQng> ftnd roge up to fee gone>
And then was I kiss'd and set down on his knee, when oyer fche meadow came jolly young Jonn>
No man in the world was so loving as he. who told her thftt ghe wag the JQy of hig ^
But now he has left me, and Fanny the fair And if she'd consent, he would make her his
Employs all his wishes, his thoughts and his wife : [went,
care ; She could not refuse him, to church so they
He kisses her lip as she sits on his knee, Young Willy'sforgot,andyoungSusan'scontent.
And says all the sweet things he once said to Most men are like Willy, most women like Sue,
me : If men will be false, why should women be true ?
O MOTHER, A HOOP !
To this tune Gibber wrote the song " What woman could do, I have tried, to
be free," for his ballad-opera of Love in a Middle, 1729. It is also printed in
The Merry Musician, ii. 7.
In The Livery Rake, 1733, the air takes the name of Gibber's song ; but in
Damon and Phillida, 1734, it is entitled Mother, a hoop !
There are two versions of " Mother, a hoop ! " the one as a song, the other
' A Dialogue between Miss Molly and her Mother about a hoop." A copy of
the latter will be found in one of the collections in the British Museum (H. 1601,
p. 532). It consists of ten stanzas, commencing thus :
Daughter. " What a fine thing have I seen to-day,
O Mother, a hoop :
I pray let me have one, and do not say nay,
Mother, a hoop."
Mother. " You must not have one, dear Moll, to be sure,
For hoops do men's eyes and men's hearts so allure,
No, Molly, no hoop, no hoop,
No, Molly, no hoop."
Daughter. " Dear Mother, let women wear what, they will, O, &c.
Men's eyes and men's hearts will be roving still ; 0, &c.
Whether decently clothed or sluttishly dress' d,
Some men prefer these and others the rest. O, &c.
Men wear lac'd hats and ladies lac'd shoes,
Men with canvas and whalebone do stiffen their clothes,
Then why should the men the ladies abuse
For applying the same things, and to the same use.
Pray hear me, dear Mother, what I have been taught
Nine men and nine women o'erset in a boat,
The men were all drown'd, but the women did float,
And by help of their hoops they all safely got out," &c.
In some of the broadsides with music, the tune is attributed to Mr. Brailford.
The following is the first stanza of the song :
652 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
The wife around her husband throws Away he goes, he flies the rout,
Her arms, and begs his stay ; Their steeds all spur and switch ;
My dear, it rains, it hails and snows, Some are thrown in, and some thrown but,
You will not hunt to-day. And some thrown in the ditch.
But a hunting we will go. But a hunting we will go.
A brushing fox in yonder wood, At length his strength to faintness worn,
Secure to find we seek ; Poor reynard ceases flight ;
For why, I carried, sound and good, Then hungry, homeward we return,
A cartload there last week. To feast away the night.
And a hunting we will go. Then a drinking we do go.
Instead of the last three stanzas of the above, the four following are
usually sung :
Th' uncavern'd fox, like lightning flies, Despairing, mark ! he seeks the tide,
His cunning's all awake ; His heart must now prevail ;
To gain the race he eager tries ; Hark ! shout the hunters, death betide,
His forfeit life the stake ! His speed, his cunning fail.
When a hunting we do go, &c. When a hunting we do go, &c.
Arous'd, e'en Echo huntress turns, For lo ! his strength to faintness worn,
And madly shouts her joy ; The hounds arrest his flight ;
The sportsman's breast enraptur'd burns, Then hungry homewards we return,
The chace can never cloy. To feast away the night.
Then a hunting we will go, &c. Then a drinking we do go, &c.
THE VICAR OF BRAY.
Simon Aleyn, Canon of Windsor, was Vicar of Bray, in Berkshire, from 1540
to 1588. " He was a Papist under the reign of Henry VIII. , and a Protestant
under Edward VI. ; he was a Papist again under Mary, and once more became
a Protestant in the reign of Elizabeth. When this scandal to the gown was re-
proached for his versatility of religious creeds, and taxed for being a turncoat
and an inconstant changeling, as Fuller expresses it, he replied, ' Not so neither ;
for if I changed my religion, I am sure I kept true to my principle ; which is, to
live and die the Vicar of Bray.' '
This vivacious and reverend hero gave birth to a proverb, " The Vicar of Bray
will be Vicar of Bray still." In a sermon preached before the Lord Mayor and
Aldermen of London, by John Evans, in 1682, after describing the common
notion of a Moderate Minister in the church, as one who would comply with the
humours and fancies of all parties, he says, " And if this be moderation, the old
Vicar of Bray was the most moderate man that ever breathed." (Southey's
Common Place Book, p. 159.)
Nichols in his Select Poems says that the song of the Vicar of Bray " was
written by a soldier in Colonel Fuller's troop of Dragoons, in the reign of
George I."
In the ballad operas, such as The Quakers' Opera, 1728, and The Grul Street
Opera and the Welsh Opera, both 1731, the original name of the tune is given as
The Country Garden.
In some of the copies the tune is printed in time, which entirely changes its
character ; it then becomes a plaintive love ditty instead of a sturdy and bold
air. The curious will find the J version in National English Airs (No. 26, p. 14).
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
653
Boldly.
m
In good King Charles's gol-den days, When loy - al - ty no harm meant, A
N^
iH-J-Hr^
-^ ?- -*--* if
zeal -ous high-churchman was I, And so I got pre - fer - ment. To
is*
9 F-
teach my flock I ne - ver miss'd Kings were by God ap - point - ed, And
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fppJ
lost are those that dare re - sist Or touch the Lord's a - noint - ed. And
pizrr .Li^-pp
f=$
Mid
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his is law that I'll main- tain Un - til my dy - ing day,
g-f-rf- ii
Sir, That
r
^
r
--*
T
e - ver King shall reign, Still I'll be the Vi-car of Bray,
4- '
what-so
Sir.
654 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
When royal James possess'd the crown, Occasional conformists base,
And popery grew in fashion, I blam'd their moderation ;
The penal laws I hooted down, And thought the church in danger was.
And read the Declaration : By such prevarication.
The church of Rome I found would fit And this is law, &c.
Full well my constitution ; Tir , /-, . ,,.
* When George in pudding-time came o er,
And I had been a Jesuit, A j , , , ,, , .
And moderate men look d big, sir,
But for the Revolut.on. M rinci ]es l ch , d mee
And th,s is law, &c.
TTTI WIT v j i j And thus preferment I procur'd
When William was our King declar d,
, ... From our new faith s-defender ;
To ease the nation s grievance ; , .
TTT . . , . . , , r ,, And almost ev ry day abiur d
With this new wind about I steer'd, J y J
. , . ,, . The Pope and the Pretender.
And swore to him allegiance :
~,, . . , r ,., And this is law, &c.
Old principles I did revoke,
Set conscience at a distance ; Th' illustrious house of Hanover,
Passive obedience was a joke, And Protestant succession,
A jest was non-resistance. To these I do allegiance swear
And this is law, &c. While they can keep possession :
For in my faith and loyalty,
When royal Anne became our queen, I never more will falter,
The church of England's glory, And George my lawful king shall be
Another face of things was seen, Until the times do alter.
And I became a tory : And this is law, &c.
The above air was also rendered popular by the song of " The Neglected
Tar," commencing
" I sing the British seaman's praise ;
A theme renown'd in story," &c.
It is printed in the Rev. James Plumptre's dull, but highly moral collection,
8vo., 1805.
THE SPRING'S A COMING.
This tune is contained in the third volume of The Dancing Master, and in the
third volume of "Walsh's Dancing Master, under the name of Humours of the
Bath, It was introduced in many ballad-operas, such as The Wedding, The
Beggars^ Wedding, The Lovers' Opera, The Devil to pay, and A Rehearsal of a
new Ballad- Opera Burlesqued, and generally under the title of "The Spring's
a coming," from the first line of " The Bath Medley," written by Tony Aston.
This Tony Aston was an actor, who, in 1735, petitioned the House of
Commons to be heard against the bill then pending for regulating the stage, and
was permitted to deliver a ludicrous speech, which was afterwards published.
His way of living was then peculiar to himself; resorting to the principal cities
or towns in England, with his Medley, as he termed it, which was composed of
some scenes of humour out of the most celebrated plays, and filling up the in-
tervals between the scenes by a song or dialogue of his own writing.
" The Bath Medley" is printed with the tune, in Watts's Musical Miscellany,
i, 161 (1729), and Cofiey's song, " Young Virgins love pleasure," to the same
air, in the fifth volume of that work. Coffey wrote it for his play, The Beggars'
Wedding.
The words here adapted were written to the air by the late George Macfarren.
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
655
Gracefully, and rather slowly.
r :*
The Spring is coming, re - solv'd to banish The king of the ice with his
bid:
turbulent train, With her fai - ry wand she bids them all vanish, And welcomes the sunshine to
^
earth a - gain. Then maidens, fore - go the win - fry kir- tie, And
-f -
r=^^i -H-
1 P
zi~
1 J ^ T^n
^ni 3
lace ev- ry bod - dice with
:-r r
^^3=
^_x
bright green str
/
ng, An
-
d
twine each lat-tice with
!
\
!
wreaths of myr-tle To honour the ad -vent of joy - ful Spring.
The Spring is coming to waken the roses
With gay serenades from her chorister birds,
Ev'ry breathing flow'ret's lip discloses
A gratitude sweeter than mortal words.
Shall we be the last to swell the measure
That all nature's children in harmony sing ?
Ah no ! we'll tune with a holier pleasure
The carol of welcome to joyful Spring.
656
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
SWEET NELLY, MY HEART'S DELIGHT.
This song is usually entitled The Farmer's Son ; it was extremely popular at
the commencement of the last century, and remains so to the present day. Mr.
J. H. Dixon informs me that " it is still regularly printed in Yorkshire, and that
no song is more in favour with the small farmers and the peasantry."
It is contained in The Merry Musician, or A Cure for the Spleen, ii. 78 ; in
Watts's Musical Miscellany, i. 130 (1729) ; in The British Musical Miscellany,
or The Delightful Grove, published by Walsh, and there are numerous extant
copies on broadsides.
The air was introduced in many ballad-operas, such as The Lovers' Opera,
The Footman, &c. ; and the words printed in many song-books.
Gracefully, and rather slowly.
ft
Sweet Nel-ly, my heart's de - light,
Be lov- ing and do
not
slight The prof-fer I make, For mo-des-ty's sake ; I ho-nour your beau - ty
&
- 1 1 II
I j_. . H -i |
is~~l H r
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bright. For love I pro - fess,
r - P H ^ r- J
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I can do no
i ' i
less, Thou
_j ^a_|
i i H - 1
N
1 ::
Ed
hast my fa - vour won : And since I see your mo - des-ty, I
r^ ^k ^
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I I-- ' i II
pray you a gree And
-i - r
-^-4-i *-
f
fan - cy me, Tho'
-s ?-* *-
I'm but a far - mer's
E^E33
son.
-P f k-M- _*-
i f-
H
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
657
She. No ! I am a lady gay,
It is very well known I may
Have men of renown,
In country or town ;
So, Roger, without delay,
Court Bridget or Sue,
Kate, Nancy, or Prne,
Their loves will soon be won ;
But don't you dare
To speak me fair,
As if I were
At my last pray'r,
To marry a farmer's son.
He. My father has riches in store,
Two hundred a year, and more ;
Besides sheep and cows,
Carts, harrows and ploughs :
His age is above three-score ;
And when he does die,
Then merrily I
Shall have what he has won ;
Both land and kine,
All shall be thine,
If thou'lt incline
And wilt be mine,
And marry a farmer's son.
She. A fig for your cattle and corn !
Your proffer'd love I scorn.'
'Tis known very well
My name it is Nell,
And you're but a bumpkin born.
He. Well, since it is so,
And I hope no harm is done.
Farewell ! adieu !
I hope to woo
As good as you,
And win her, too,
Though I'm but farmer's son.
She. Be not in such haste, quoth she,
Perhaps we may still agree ;
For, man, I protest
I was but in jest ;
Come, prythee, sit down by me :
For thou art the man
That verily can
Win me, if e'er I'm won :
Both straight and tall,
Genteel with all,
Therefore I shall
Be at your call,
To marry a farmer's son.
He. Dear Nelly, believe me, now,
I solemnly swear and vow,
No lords in their lives
Take pleasure in wives
Like we that do drive the plough :
Whatever we gain
With labour or pain
We don't after harlots run,
As courtiers do ;
And I never knew
A London beau
That could out-do
A country farmer's son.
Away I will go,
COME, JOLLY BACCHUS.
En the second volume of The Dancing Master, this tune is called " Frisky
Jenny, or The tenth of June ; " in the third volume it is again printed under the
title of " The Constant Lover." In Walsh's Lady's Banquet it appears as " The
Swedes Dance at the new Playhouse;" in The Devil to pay, and The Rival
Milliners, or The Humours of Covent Garden, as " Charles of Sweden ; " and in
Tie Beggar's Wedding as " Glorious first of August." The song of Come, jolly
Bdjcchus, by the name of which it is now best known, was written to the tune in
TJ/e Devil to pay.
The following ballads and songs were also sung to it :
1. On the taking of Portobello in 1739, entitled " English Courage display'd :
Or brave news from Admiral Vernon. To the tune of Charles of Sweden"
Contained in The Careless Batchelor's Garland. It is a long ballad of eleven
st;mzas, commencing thus :
" Come, loyal Britons, all rejoice, with joyful acclamation,
And join with one united voice upon this just occasion.
To Admiral Vernon drink a health, likewise to each brave fellow,
Who with that noble Admiral was at the taking of Portobello."
658
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
2. " A song to the tune of Come, Jolly Bacchus, god of wine." Two stanzas.
" Come, gallant Vernon, come, and prove
How firm your friends are here, Sir ;
Supported by the Public Love,
You will have nought to fear, Sir.
Soon shall mistaken boasters know
That we can still some virtue shew,
Resolved to ward corruption's blow,
And check its swift career, Sir."
3. " A new song made on board the Salamander, Privateer."
" Come, let's drink a health to George our King,
And all his brave Commanders :
Another glass let us then toss off,
To the valiant Salamander," &c,
4. "A Jigg danc'd in the Schoole of Venus, or the Three-penny Hops,
burlesqu'd by Mr. John Vernham ;" commencing
" how I doat upon that lass."
Jovially.
A L
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Come, jol-ly Bac-chus,
Let none at cares of
god of wine,
life re - pine,
Crown this night with
To des - troy our
plea - sure ;
plea - sure :
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Fill
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May drink and sing with - out con-troul,
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To sup - port our plea - sure.
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Let lovers whine, and statesmen think,
Always void of pleasure ;
And let the miser hug his chink,
Destitute of pleasure :
But we like sons of mirth and bliss,
Obtain the height of happiness,
Whilst brimmers flow with juice like this,
In the midst of pleasure.
Thus, mighty Bacchus, shalt thou be
Guardian to our pleasure ;
That under thy protection we
May enjoy new pleasure;
And as the hours glide away,
We'll in thy name invoke their stay,
And sing thy praises, that we may
Live and die in pleasure !
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
659
COUNTRY BUMPKIN.
This tune is found in many of the ballad-operas in the first half of the last
century, such as The Cobbler's Opera; Robin Hood ; Momus turned Fabulist, or
V dean's Wedding ; Don Quixote in England; and The Welsh Opera, or TJie
Crrey Mare the better Horse.
The song from which it appears to derive its name is entitled " The Politick
Club," and contained in Pills to purge Melancholy, ii. 277 (1700 and 1707) ;
but there printed to G-reen Sleeves.
The tune is generally known at the present time. A few years ago it was the
vehicle of a song commencing
" When a man's a little bit poorly,
He makes a fuss wants a nurse,
Thinks he's going to die most surely,
Sends for a doctor and soon gets worse."
Cheerfully.
A coun - try bumpkin who trees did grub, A vicar that us'd the
J- J- ^ i
pulpit to drub, And twoor three more, o'era stoup of strong bub, Late met on a jolly oc- ca - sion
J.
THE HATHERSAGE COCKING.
The barbarous amusement which is the subject of this song, was with the
Athenians at first partly a religious and partly a political institution, and after-
wards continued for improving the seeds of valour in the minds of their youth,
but eventually perverted, both there and in other parts of Greece, to a common
pa; time, without any political or religious intention. It was afterwards adopted
by the Romans, and by them probably introduced into England. Cockfighting
has been called by some a royal diversion ; and the Cockpit at Whitehall was
added to the palace by Henry the Eighth, and enlarged by Charles II. , for the
purpose of giving greater patronage and importance to the amusement.
This tune is an especial favourite in Derbyshire and Warwickshire, and may
frequently be heard in the alehouses, to these and to other words. It was con-
tributed in 1835, by the late Mr. Ward, a teacher of music in Manchester, who
used occasionally to entertain his friends by singing it in the provincial dialect.
From the testimony of two persons he then traced it back one hundred and
twenty years. I do not, however, think that any such tracings are very reliable
as to the integrity of a tune, and beg the reader to compare the two following.
2 v
660
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
There are several old ballads about cockfighting still extant, as " The Wednes-
bury Cocking," in the Douce Collection, commencing
" At Wednesbury there was a cocking,
A match between Newton and Scrogging,
The colliers and nailers left their work,
And all to Spittles went jogging,
To see this noble sport.
Many noted men there resorted,
And though they'd but little money,
Yet that they freely sported," &c.
Hathersage is situated in the midst of a mountainous tract of country near
the eastern extremity of Hope Dale. The churchyard is the reputed burial-
place of Little John, the companion of Robin Hood.
I received but one stanza of the ballad from Mr. Ward, and have not found it
in print.
Moderate time.
Then great Bill Brown came swag - gering down, I'll hold you a gui - nea
:4-J [J a .j ~f=F=E
J~3 -J- tj i j^
a
j
to a crown That, let the black cock have fair play, He'll drive the sod of the
PH
bon- ny gray, Singing tol de rol de riddle lol de ra, Ri tol lol de riddle lol de ra.
^=J5
2
tt
O GOOD ALE, THOU ART MY DARLING.
This tune is still current in three different 'shapes. The first as good ale,
ihou art my darling ; the second to a song about Turpin, the highwayman ; and
the third to the above song about cock-fighting. They differ so much at the
beginnings and endings that it is necessary to treat them as separate tunes.
The following is the song of good ale, thou art my darling, from a broadside
with music. The first part of this version resembles John, come kiss me noio
(ante p. 148).
REIGN OP QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
Moderate time.
661
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The landlord, he looks
ve-ry big With his high cock 'd hat and his powder'dwig;
00 J 1* P I*
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Me-thinks he looks hoth fair and fat, But he may thank you and me for that, For 'tis
3
f
!
4+*
O, good ale, thou art my dar-ling And my joy both night and morning
3SJI-I .u=o=fe
a
The brewer brew'd thee in his pan,
The tapster draws thee in his can ;
Now I with thee will play my part,
And lodge thee next unto my heart.
For 'tis O, good ale, &c.
Thou oft hast made my friends my foes,
And often made me pawn my clothes ;
But since thou art so nigh my nose,
Come up, my friend, and down he goes.
For 'tis O, good ale, &c.
O RARE TURPIN, HERO.
This is one of several ballads about Richard Turpin, the highwayman, exalting
him into a hero. It is contained in a pamphlet, entitled " The Dunghill Cock ;
or Turpin's valiant exploits," &c., "entered according to order" at Stationers'
Hall, but undated. It is entitled " Turpin's valour : to its own proper tune"
Mr. W. Harrison Ainsworth makes Turpin one of the characters in his novel
of liookwood, and represents him as singing snatches of this ballad. It was evi-
dently written in 1739, just before Turpin was executed ; yet is commonly known
at the present time. Charles Sloman, the comic singer, sang the ballad to me
in 1840, for the purpose of having the tune noted down.
In the Kilkenny Archaeological Society's publications (new series, March, 1856,
No. 2), is a ballad about Captain Freney, an Irish highwayman, which was evi-
dently suggested by, and partially derived from this. The Kilkenny ballad
commences "One morning, being free from care,
I rode abroad to take the air ;
'Twas my fortune for to spy
A jolly Quaker riding by :
And it's bold Captain Freney,
O bold Freney O."
662
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
The tune is printed in the Kilkenny Journal, but I believe it to have been
incorrectly noted down. The Irish are a nation possessed of great musical taste
and feeling, and I cannot imagine that any one, having ears, could either sing or
listen to so barbarous a thing. Still there are traces of its being a corruption of
rare Turpin, 0.
I make no apology to my readers for printing one highwayman's ballad;
after all, these are but continuations of the exploits of Robin Hood. Nor need
we go back to the Robin Hood era to find instances of the greatest ladies of the
court interceding to save the lives of highwaymen, provided they were brave and
handsome witness the case of Claude Duval.
As to the origin of the tune, see " good ale, thou art my darling " (p. 660).
-^ Moderate time.
>-1 1
XI . / * II 1
1 H
S j ( 1 1 1 i
J a N 1
J 1 hJ J J J_
*- ~i 3~*-
On Hounslov
J
#1- -3-
r heath as I j
rode o'er, I spied a law - yer
'' \ *4f *
4 \
* EEHU r i* r
- * r r
-F- P ^
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-^ L ^i i _^**\
r r '
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\ r\ r\
mm
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J _i
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j r i j j
J J J
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ri - ding be-fore; Kind
**
sir, said I, ar'n't yo
u a - fraid Of Tur -pin, that mis -
m> m
i* r t*
_
r r r
- chie - vous blade ? O rare Tur - pin, he - ro,
S
^
Says Turpin, he'd ne'er find me out,
I've hid my money in my boot.
O, says the lawyer, there's none can find
My gold, for its stitched in my cape behind.
O rare Turpin, &c.
As they rode down by the powder mill,
Turpin commands him to stand still ;
Said he, Your cape I must cut off,
For my mare she wants a saddle cloth.
O rare Turpin, &c.
This caus'd the lawyer much to fret,
To think he was so fairly bit;
And Turpin robb'd him of his store,
Because he knew he'd lie for more.
O rare Turpin, &c.
As Turpin rode in search of prey,
He met an exciseman on the way ;
Then boldly he did bid him stand ;
Your gold, said he, I do demand.
O rare Turpin, &c.
To that the exciseman did reply,
Your proud demands I must deny ;
Before my money you receive,
One of us two shall cease to live.
O rare Turpin, &c.
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
663
Turpin then, without remorse,
Soon knock'd him quite from off his horse,
And left him on the ground to sprawl,
So off he rode with his gold and all.
O rare Turpin, &c.
As he rode over Salisbury Plain,
He met Lord Judge with all his train ;
Then, hero-like, he did approach,
And robb'd the judge as he sat in his coach.
O rare Turpin, &c.
An usurer, as I am told,
Who had in charge a sum of gold,
With a cloak was clouted from side to side ;
Just like a palmer he did ride.
O rare Turpin, &c.
And as he jogg'd along the way,
He met with Turpin that same day :
With hat in hand, most courteously
He asked him for charity.
O rare Turpin, &c.
If that be true thou tell'st to me,
I'll freely give thee charity;
But I made a vow, and that I'll keep,
To search all palmers I may meet.
O rare Turpin, &c.
He searched his bags,' wherein he found
Upwards of eight hundred pound,
In ready gold and white money,
Which made him to laugh heartily.
O rare Turpin, &c.
This begging is a curious trade,
For in thy way thou hast well sped ;
This prize I count as found money,
Because thou told'st me an arrant lie.
O rare Turpin, &c.
For shooting of a dunghill cock,
Poor Turpin now at last is took,
And carried straight unto a jail,
Where his ill luck he does bewail.
O poor Turpin, &c.
Now some do say that he will hang,
Turpin the last of all the gang :
I wish this cock had ne'er been hatch'd,
For like a fish in a net he's catch'd.
O poor Turpin, &c.
But if he had his liberty,
And were upon yon mountains high,
There's not a man in old England,
Dare bid bold Turpin for to stand.
O poor Turpin, &c.
He ventur'd bold at young and old,
And fairly fought them for their gold ;
Of no man he was e'er afraid,
But now, alas ! he is betray'd.
O poor Turpin, &c.
Now Turpin is condem'd to die,
To hang upon yon gallows high :
His legacy is a strong rope,
For stealing a poor dunghill cock.
O poor Turpin, &c.
THE FKEEMASONS' TUNE.
This tune was very popular at the time of the ballad-operas, and I am in-
formed that the same words are still sung to it at masonic meetings.
The air was introduced in The Village Opera, The Chambermaid, The Lottery,
The Grub-Street Opera, and The Lover his own Rival. It is contained in the
third volume of The Dancing Master, and of Walsh's New Country Dancing
Master.
Words and music are included in Watts's Musical Miscellany, iii. 72, and in
British Melody, or The Musical Magazine, fol. 1739. They were also printed on
broadsides.
In The Gentleman's Magazine for October, 1731, the first stanza is printed as
" A. Health, by Mr. Birkhead." It seems to be there quoted from " The Con-
stitutions of the Freemasons, by the Rev. James Anderson, A.M., one of the
worshipful Masters."
There are several versions of the tune. One in Pills to purge Melancholy,
ii. 230, 1719, has a second part, but that, being almost a repetition of the first,
664
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
taken an octave higher, is out of the compass of ordinary voices, and has there-
fore been generally rejected.
In A Complete Collection of Old and New English and Scotch Songs, ii. 172
(1735), the name is given as "Ye Commons and Peers," but Leveridge composed
another tune to those words. See Pills.
In " The Musical Mason, or Free Mason's Pocket Companion, being a Collec-
tion of Songs used in all Lodges : to which are added The Free Mason's March
and Ode," (8.vo., 1790), this is entitled " The Enter'd Apprentice's Song."
Many stanzas have been added from time to time, and others have been
altered. The following is the old copy :
Cheerfully.
Gome, letus pre-pare, We brothers that are Met to - gether on merry oc - ca - sion, Let us
i
drink, laugh, and sing, Our wine has a spring, 'Tis a health to an ac-cepted Ma - son.
i
i J
The world is in pain
Our secret to gain,
But stiH let them wonder and gaze on,
Till they're shewn the light
They'll ne'er know the right
Word or sign of an accepted Mason.
'Tis this, and 'tis that,
They cannot tell what,
Why so many great men of the nation
Should aprons put on,
To make themselves one
With a free and an accepted Mason.
Great kings, dukes, and lords,
Have laid by their swords,
This our myst'ry to put a good grace on,
And ne'er been asham'd
To hear themselves nam'd
With a free and an accepted Mason.
Antiquity's pride
We have on our side,
It makes each man just in his station;
There's nought but what's good,
To be understood
By a free and an accepted Mason.
We're true and sincere,
We're just to the fair,
They'll trust us on ev'ry occasion ;
No mortal can more
The ladies adore
Than a free and an accepted Mason.
Then join hand in hand,
To each other firm stand,
Let's be merry and put a bright face on ;
What mortal can boast
So noble a toast
As a free and an accepted Mason.
CEASE YOUR FUNNING.
This and You'll think ere many days ensue are the only two songs in The
Beggars' Opera of which the original, or at least earlier, names are not given in
the first edition. You'll think ere many days has been handed down through the
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II. 605
traditions of the stage as one of the snatches of old songs sung by Ophelia in
Hamlet; but we have now no sufficient evidence to prove the origin of Cease your
fanning. There are half-sheet songs to the same tune, such as "Charming Billy,"
ccmmencing, " When the hills and lofty mountains ; " but it is not certain that any
are of earlier date than The Beggars' Opera. In all probability, Gay was unable
to recollect the names of the two airs, although they were familiar to him.
The excessive popularity of Gay's song caused the adoption of its title when
the tune was introduced in other ballad-operas, as, for instance, in The Fashion-
able Lady, or Harlequin's Opera, 1730.
In the year 1833, the late John Parry published " The Welsh Melody, sung
with such distinguished approbation by Miss Kelly, in her entertainment called
Dramatic Recollections, written in Welsh and English, and adapted to the
favorite air, Llivyn on, or The Ash Grove, by John Parry, editor of Welsh and
Scotch Melodies." To this he added the following note : " The celebrated song
of Cease your funning, in The Beggars' Opera, is this beautiful and simple
molody ornamented." The air of Cease your funning is really quite as simple as
the Welsh melody ; and, if there has been any copying, it is infinitely more
probable that the Welsh air was derived from Cease your funning, than that
a tune noted down seventy years after The Beggars' Opera had been publicly
performed in Wales, should prove to be the original of one of its melodies.
The Welsh air which resembles Cease your funning is neither to be found in the
Ancient British Music, collected by John Parry and Evan Williams in 1742,
nor in British Harmony, " being a collection of ancient Welsh airs," by John
Parry of Ruabon Denbighshire, in 1781. It was first printed by Edward
Jones, in his Bardic Museum, 1802, and the resemblance there is confined to
tho first part, and is not very strong; but Parry increased it by slightly
altering the first and entirely changing the second part of the tune. Again,
who can say that this Welsh air is old ? Jones entitles it, " Llwynn-onn,
the name of Mr. Jones's mansion, near Wrexham, in Denbighshire." I do
not know how long Mr. Jones's mansion has stood, or who composed the Welsh
air ; but it is not improbably the production of some grateful bard whom Mr.
Jones entertained there. Let it be remembered that the succession of Welsh
bards continues to the present day, and that some of their compositions are in-
corporated in collections of Welsh music, without any marks to distinguish the
new from the old. Edward Jones was Bard to George IV. ; the late John
Parry, " Bardd Alaw." Parry printed " A Selection of Welsh Melodies," in
three volumes ; and in the first, as well as in the second, included an air named
Cailer Idris, after a venerable mountain in Merionethshire. Some years after
thi^ publication, Mr. Charles Matthews sang the air on the stage, with great
success, and Parry then claimed it as his own composition. He was too honorable
a man to make such a claim, if not really his own, but Cader Idris (alias Jenny
Jones) , might still be passing for an ancient Welsh melody, if the copyright had
not become thus suddenly and unexpectedly valuable. These matters are not
always revealed to the public.
666
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
-^ Slowly and gracefully.
(a)* 7 ft j
*~A
M J-fH P=l -
* g ,.
_ j_., .^ []
Cease your funning,
All these sal - lies
J- ^ -j-
Force or cun-ning Ne - ver shall my
Are but ma -lice To se-ducemy
n ^- r j ' *
heart tre-pan ;
con-stantman.
" 1
H f 1 i
9 i-
-d- *
i 6 f
1 ( f
H , r^r
p J hj j 1
* ^ k i -J ix ^ t==i b ,^_d-+-
'Tis most cer-tain, By their flirt-ing, Wo -men oft have
T ' f - : 1 - j J"
1 J^ q S 3 . 1
en - vy shown ;
__ . p p -.
I . 1 ' '
C* r
9 i * bJ
f ,.
J
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j * j
"1 w \
s
a
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Pleas'd to ru - in
-f * 2 5
* -J- 04- V y^4- j; .
O - thers' woo-ing ; Nev - er hap - py in their own.
f = f-^ J , J : H-
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i 1
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r^ . ^ .i
H^
=dh
THE BUDGEON IT IS A DELICATE TRADE.
This tune is now familiarly known as There was a jolly Miller ; it is also the
vehicle of a harvest-supper song, "Here's a health unto our Master;" but a
still earlier name (or at least a name under which I find it at an earlier date) is
The budgeon it is a delicate trade.
The budgeon it is a delicate trade, is contained in The Triumph of Wit,
or Ingenuity displayed, and in A new Canting Dictionary, &c., "with a com-
plete collection of Songs in the canting dialect," 8vo., 1725. From this it
appears that a " budge" is a thief who slips into houses in the dark, to steal
cloaks and other clothes. The dialect of the song might be intelligible to a
police-officer, but would not be so to the general reader, as the following sample
will shew :
But if the cully nab us, and
The lurries from us take,
O then he rubs us to the whit,
Though we are not worth a make."
The tune was introduced into several of the ballad-operas (The Quaker's
Opera, 1728 ; The Devil to pay ; The Fashionable Lady, or Harlequin's Opera ;
&c.), under the name of The budgeon, it is a delicate trade.
One stanza of There was a jolly Miller was sung in Love in a Village, 1762 ;
and it is therefore supposed to have been written by Bickerstaffe, but he appro-
priated so many songs from other sources, without acknowledgement, that this
may also have been introduced. However, I have not seen the words in print
before 1762,
" The budgeon it is a delicate trade,
And a delicate trade of fame,
For when that we have bit the blow,
We carry away the game.
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEOEGE II.
667
The following version is from The Convivial Songster, 1782 :
" There was a jolly miller once liv'd on the river Dee ;
He danc'd and he sang from morn till night, no lark so blithe as he.
And this the burden of his song for ever us'd to be
I care for nobody, no, not I, if nobody cares for me.
I live by my mill, God bless her ! she's kindred, child, and wife ;
I would not change my station for any other in life.
No lawyer, surgeon, or doctor, e'er had a groat from me
I care for nobody, no, not I, if nobody cares for me.
When Spring begins its merry career, oh I how his heart grows gay ;
No summer drought alarms his fears, nor winter's sad decay ;
No foresight mars the miller's joy, who's wont to sing and say
Let others toil from year to year, I live from day to day.
Thus like the miller, bold and free, let us rejoice and sing ;
The days of youth are made for glee, and time is on the wing.
This song shall pass from me to thee, along this jovial ring
Let heart and voice and all agree to say Long live the King."
About two years ago, the following stanzas were sent to the editor of The
Illustrated London News to be printed among the " Memorabilia " in that journal.
They were found written on the fly-leaf of a volume of Dryden's Miscellany
Poems (printed in 1716), and the finder supposed them to be the original song of
The jolly Miller:
There was a jolly miller once
Lived on the river Dee ;
He work'd and sang from morn till night,
No lark more blithe than he.
And this the burden of his song
For ever used to be
I care for nobody, no, not I,
If nobody cares for me.
The reason why he was so blithe,
He once did thus unfold
The bread I eat my hands have earn'd ;
I covet no man's gold ;
I do not fear next quarter-day ;
In debt to none I be.
I care for nobody, &c.
When the harvest-supper song is sung to this tune, it is generally in a major
key. I have copies so noted down in Kent, in Suffolk, and in Wiltshire ; and it
i^ printed in that form in " Old English Songs as now sung by the peasantry of
tlie Weald of Surrey and Sussex" (collected by the Rev. John Broadwood),
harmonized by G. A. Dusart.
The following are the harvest-supper words as commonly sung :
" Here's a health unto our master, the founder of the feast;
I hope his soul, whenever he dies, to heav'n may go. to rest ;
That all his works may prosper, whatever he takes in hand ;
For we are all his servants, and all at his command.
Then, drink boys drink and see you do not spill,
For if you do, you shall drink two, it is our master's will.
A coin or two I've in my purse,
To help a needy friend ;
A little I can give the poor,
And still have some to spend.
Though I may fail, yet I rejoice,
Another's good hap to see.
I care for nobody, &c.
So let us his example take,
And be from malice free ;
Let every one his neighbour serve,
As served he'd like to be.
And merrily push the can about,
And drink a.nd sing with glee;
If nobody cares a doit for us,
Why not a doit care we.
668
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
Now harvest it is ended, and supper it is past,
To our good mistress' health, boys, a full and flowing glass,
For she is a good woman, and makes us all good cheer :
Here's to our mistress' health, boys, so all drink off your beer.
Then drink boys drink and see you do not spill,
For if you do, you shall drink two, it is our master's will."
Sometimes the following verse is added, or the song commences with it :
" Here's a health unto the woodcutter, that lives at home at ease ;
He takes his work so light in hand, can leave it when he please ;
He takes the withe and winds it, and lays it on the ground,
And round the faggot he binds it, so let his health go round.
Then drink boys drink and pass it round to me,
The longer we sit here and drink, the merrier we shall be."
The tune of The jolly Miller was one of those harmonized by Beethoven for
George Thomson, in 1824. Thomson included it in his collection of Scotch
songs, not because it was Scotch, but on account of " its merited popularity, and
the great additional interest which Beethoven has conferred upon it by his truly
original and characteristic accompaniments."
The following are the words now usually sung :
-^ Jovially.
K '
1 IS
Ii
IS k_
1 ! 1 *ll
1
J J -,
m
J " ^
II
(\y ft J*
-J J #*
3 ? 1
C-
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j J -U-
There was a jol - ly mil - ler once, Liv'd on the riv - er
He work'd and sung from morn till night, No lark more blithe than
rr.-r/.- " ' * "+ - ! - '- '
Dee^
he.
J., u d i
2
;
"Tr ^ :
-d : d ;
i a r : n
b u 1
i
r i
r - h r n.
1__ i a J J p
d K J f ht
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133
rt -S=
_f 1 J
-ij* i J H-^ v
11/1 ?
And this the bur - then of his song For ev - er us'd to be, I
a
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i r r =i
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d S-H
i
J ^ ' . L
L 1 ..
f
^cz *
I love my mill, she is to me like parent, child, and wife ;
I would not change my station for any other in life :
Then push, push, push the bowl, my boys, and pass it round to me ;
The longer we sit here and drink, the merrier we shall be.
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
669
HOW STANDS THE GLASS AROUND.
This is commonly called General Wolfe's song, and is said to have been written
by him on the night before the battle of Quebec ; but this tradition is sufficiently
disproved by a copy of the tune, under the title of "Why, soldiers, why?"
in The Patron, or The Statesman's Opera, performed at the little theatre in the
Haymarket, in 1729. Probably General Wolfe sang it on that occasion.
The words and music are contained in Vocal Music, or The Songster's Com-
panion, ii. 49 (1775), and were introduced by Shield in The Siege of Gibraltar.
In Vocal Music they are entitled " A Soldier's Song."
~s
Hather S/OM^ andjirmly.
MViy(*
-j . J d
J t J J L
^ f-r-^H
5-K-
-^ V- ' j- -^5- '-rgf r$ ^. * J-^jr^ti^ ^ 5T
How stands the glass a - round ? For shame, ye take no care, my boys! Hov
j+~ ri 1 1 1 1 1 d ^4-
b-
b
a
=F
d . **+-
-*- --
^_, -
I J
stands the glass a - round? Let mirth and wine a - bound. T
ie truin - pets
f
m&
w*
sound, The co-lours they are flying, boys, To fight, kill, or wound : May we still be
-
* -g: ^ -SC
Con - tent with our hard fare, my boys, On the cold, cold ground,
r-J " I II =1=- I
Why, soldiers, why
Should we be melancholy, boys?
Why, soldiers, why ?
Whose business 'tis to die !
What! sighing? fie!
Damn fear, drink on, be jolly boys !
'Tis he, you, or I ;
Cold, hot, wet, or dry,
We're always bound to follow, boys,
And scorn to fly.
'Tis but in vain,
(I mean not to upbraid you, boys),
'Tis but in vain
For soldiers to complain :
Should next campaign
Send us to Him who made us, boys,
We're free from pain ;
But should we remain,
A bottle and kind landlady
Cures all again.
670
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
THE JOLLY FELLOW.
This convivial song is still popular, and there are several extant versions of the
words. They are founded on the following, from Fletcher's play, The Bloody
Brother, or Hollo, Duke of Normandy, act ii., sc. 2 :
" Drink to-day and drown all sorrow, It helps the head-ache, cough, and tisic,
You shall, perhaps, not do it to-morrow ; And is for all diseases physic.
Best, while you have it, use your breath, Then , et U3 8wm> boyB> for our health
There is no drinking after death. who drink8 weU loyes the commonwealth .
Wine works the heart up, wakes the wit, And he that will to bed go sober,
There is no cure 'gainst age but it; Falls with the leaf still in October."
One of the current versions is as follows :
" Come, landlord, fill a flowing bowl, until it does run over ;
To-night we all will merry be, to-morrow we'll get sober.
He that drinks strong beer, and goes to bed mellow,
Lives as he ought to live, and dies a hearty fellow.
Punch cures the gout, the colic, and the tisic,
And is to all men the very best of physic.
He that drinks small beer, and goes to bed sober,
Falls, as the leaves do, that die in October.
He that courts a pretty girl, and courts her for his pleasure,
Is a fool to marry her without store of treasure.
Now let us dance and sing, and drive away all sorrow,
For perhaps we may not meet again to-morrow."
Another version will be found in Vocal Miscellany, vol. ii., 1734. It is more
like the following, which is from a half-sheet copy printed with the music. Owing
to the numerous repetitions of words, only two lines are here taken up by the
.tune ; but I believe it is more frequently sung with four lines, and then without
repetitions.
Cheerfully.
iLj- j.-3+fc/-*-
Come, let us drink a bout, Drive a-way all sor- row, Forp'r'aps we may not,
J:
*
i=2
m
m
m
f
"Tr
feB
fc=*i
Forp'r'aps we may not, Forp'r'aps we may not meet a -gain to -mor-row.
m
s
Wine cures the gout, the cholic, and the tisic,
And is for all men the very best of physic.
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEOKGE II.
671
He that drinks small beer, and goes to bed sober,
Falls, as the leaves do, that die in October.
But he that drinks all day, and goes to bed mellow,
Lives as he ought to do, and dies a hearty fellow.
A MAY-DAY DANCE.
From the second volume of The Dancing Master.
Aiter the year 1717, the celebrations of May-day in London were limited to
tho dances of milkmaids (described ante p. 282, and in Hone's Every-day Book,
i. 570), and to the Jack-in-the-green of the sweeps.
The great May-pole in the Strand (which stood close to the site of the church
of St. Mary-le- Strand) was given to Sir Isaac Newton in 1717, and removed
to Wanstead, where it was used in raising the largest telescope then known.
(Pennant's London)
Very quick.
fegEES
, I IJ-
-1 j
1~
ik
J-^=i-=
-1
i
'
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9
H H
COUNTRY COURTSHIP.
The tune of Country Courtship is contained in the third volume of The
Dancing Master, in the third volume of Walsh's New Country Dancing Master,
and in many later publications. It is in common use at the present time.
The first part is nearly the same as There was an old fellow at Waltham Cross,
which was sung to the tune of In Taunton Dean (see p. 262). It is also curious
that the words of In Taunton Dean, being in eight line stanzas, do not suit the
version of the tune In Taunton Dean as printed in the ballad-operas of Elora
and The Jovial Crew so well as this, because they require the repetition of the
four bars.
Some copies of Country Courtship differ in the second part. Having printed it
one way in the National English Airs, I now adopt the other, which is better
672
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
known at the present time. The " song entitled The Country Courtship, begin-
ning, < Honest Sir, give me thy hand, ' " was entered at Stationers' Hall, to
John Back, March 31, 1688. I have not discovered the words, and have there-
fore adapted the first stanza of In Taunton Dean, which will be found entire in
The Merry Musician, or a Cure for the Spleen, i. 306.
Quick.
In Taunton Dean che were bore and bred, To tell you the truth, my
name's a cauld Ned, Cham no An - a-baptist, for Ich caunt abide 'em, Cham sure che receiv- ed his
Chris - ten -dome. Ich put on my boots and a zourd by my zide, And
I
up vor to Lun -din Ich mean for to ride ; Ich told va - ther and ma -ther Ich'd
zee that vine town, Che'd stay there a - while and then Ich come down.
it -2 . ! ft 2 ^"""^ .
GOOD MORROW, GOSSIP JOAN.
This tune was introduced into The Beggars' Opera, The Court Legacy, TJie
Oxford Act, and other ballad-operas. The song, Good morrow, Gossip Joan, is in
Pills to purge Melancholy, vi. 315 ; and " Happy Dick," to the same tune, in
"Watts' s Musical Miscellany, iv. 36, and in Vocal Miscellany, vol. i., 1734. The
latter commences thus :
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
673
" Whence comes it, neighbour Dick,
That you, with youth uncommon,
Have serv'd the girls this trick,
And wedded an old woman ?
Happy Dick.'
i | J- r-m
1
ifprfr (/ ? rfc J i
_j 1 ^ *-3-U
J j_ j 1
Good mor- row, Gos
- sip Joan, Where ha\
e you been a
< 7 ,!?/ f* f* f*
1 CT h-p:
j | H
b b * ' \
J 1
1
~N J-
>
k^^^^^^
f^- J r J 1 J J_J
^-r-TlJ Jiu
T^ i rn
- J F * !
i * J Jj-l
-J- x
w:ilk-ing? I have for yoi
. m
i at home, . . I h(
m 9 m r
l ^
ive for you at
P , .__ . ... _ , . . ._..(* _,.(*.
. I ^
r i"*"r^~~^ *-*--
f . ,-!--,,. j-
PP 3 C
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. l=^r -f~N
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home . . A budget full of
- .: .: T - . ^ .._ x-> ^,... ,_
a a F~*~l* L IF L F L
^ .3. -g.
talk - - - ing, Gos -
, , i
CJ t*r -
sip Joan.
1 curt r trh-R
3 J-h
-i n H"
My sparrow's flown away,
And will no more come to me ;
I've broke a glass to-day,
The price will quite undo me,
Gossip Joan.
I've lost a Harry groat
Was left me by my granny,;
I cannot find it out,
I've search'd in ev'ry cranny,
Gossip Joan.
I've lost my wedding ring,
That was made of silver gilded ;
I had drink would please a king,
But that my cat has spill'd it,
Gossip Joan.
My pocket is cut off,
That was full of sugar-candy ;
I cannot stop my cough
Without a gill of brandy,
Gossip Joan.
Let's to the ale-house go,
And wash down all our sorrow,
My griefs you there shall know,
And we'll meet again to-morrow,
Gossip Joan.
A HEALTH TO ALL HONEST MEN.
This tune is contained in the second volume of The Dancing Master, 1718
and 1728 ; in Watts's Musical Miscellany, iii. 142, 1730 ; in the ballad-opera of
The Jovial Crew; in The Convivial Songster, 1782; &c.
The old song called " Love and Innocence," beginning, " My days have been
so wondrous free," is apparently the same air, slightly altered.
/L_ U |^j_
rr-^=
=*=&=\
i
i= r^P
pd==^l i ^-[
Ev'ry man take his glass in his
Many years may he rule o'er this
,l.Lj p* ' f ,
i
hand,
land,
-* feLJ
-^---^^^
And drink to the health of our
And his lau-relsfor ev - er fresh
i
~
P
m
o 1
t
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n
E
e
i / i
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King,
spring.
Let wrangling and jang - ling straight -way cease, Let
fa I-
IF
ev'- ry man strive for his Coun - try's peace, Neither To - ry nor Whig, With your
par-ties look big, Here's a health to all ho-nest men
-3- T:
When neither side can his man confute I
When you've said what you dare,
You're but just where you were :
Here's a health to all honest men I
Then agree, ye true Britons, agree ;
Never quarrel about a nickname ;
Let your enemies tremblingly see
That an Englishman's always the same.
For our king and our church, our laws and
right,
Let's lay by all feuds, and straight unite.
O then, why care a fig
Who's a Tory or Whig ?
Here's a health to all honest men I
'Tis not owning a whimsical name
That will prove a man loyal or just ;
Let him fight for his country's fame,
Be impartial at home, if in trust ;
'Tis this that proves him an honest soul ;
His health we'll drink in a brimful bowl
Then leave off all debate,
No confusion create :
Here's a health to all honest men 1
When a company's honestly met,
With intent to be jolly and gay,
Their drooping souls for to whet,
And drown the fatigues of the day,
"What madness it is thus to dispute,
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
675
ONE EVENING, HAVING LOST MY WAY.
This tune is contained in the second volume of The Dancing Master, 1718
arid 1728 ; in Walsh's Oompleat Country Dancing Master, i. 13 ; and in the
following ballad-operas: The Beggars'* Opera, The Grrub- Street Opera, and The
Welsh Opera, or The Grey Mare the better Horse. There are also numerous
extant half-sheet copies of words and music.
Sometimes the air is entitled " The happy Clown," and sometimes " Walpole,
or the happy Clown;" but it is now more generally known by the words,
" I'm like a skiff on ocean toss'd," in The Beggars' 1 Opera.
The song of " The happy Clown," commencing, u One evening, having lost my
way," was written by Mr. Burkhead. In The Convivial Songster, " As one
bright sultry summer's day" is printed to the tune, and those words may be
older than any of the above.
r
s |
H T~~I *
3 J J -jM
VM)
P
H J
-i
a j LJ
-J *- - i 1
i-K-r
One eve- ning, hav -
ing lost my way, By chance I came in -
: i m ... L j 1
tis^m
n r -
H E
__ j .._
i-^
-d-
1" 1 K 1
^
r __^ i ~M
^ J 4 >:
- to a wood, Sol
? "*"
had been ve - ry
_8 ? | 1*_
hot that day, I
un-der a cov - ert
H , l :
M . I 1
j '
j
T r ^
stood ; . . . Long time I had not tar - ried there, Be - fore I heard a
F
v-p *
rust -ling noise, A fe - male voice said " Stay, my dear," The man cried "Zoons, not I."
=F=3
E^E=^=g
-i? r~^~
2 w
676
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
PRETTY POLLY OLIVER.
This is the tune of an old ballad, entitled Polly Oliver's Ramble, which is still
in print in Seven Dials. It commences thus :
V As pretty Polly Oliver lay musing in bed,
A comical fancy came into her head ;
Nor father nor mother shall make me false prove,
I'll 'list for a soldier, and follow my love."
The old song on the Pretender, beginning,
"As Perkin one morning lay musing in bed,
The thought of three kingdoms ran much in his head ; ""
appears to be a parody on it.
The words of the following are by Lord Cantalupe.
Smoothly, and rather slow.
left -with a cau- tious de - sign, Toes-cape from her
apeirom her
ijt
,1-1 , -t
fete
-$-* i \ i J^-
i N-H
f
charms, and to dr
m 3:
J_ft -I 1
-S| -. L-^ g_J
own love in wine: I
zs^ tlirjiti rJ=t*H
tried it, but found, when I came to de -
|| ^ ^ | i-
1=
1 ^
^ k=
kf ! ^F ] ^
1 ! 1 1
T=i
*=*=
^
-part, The wine in my . head, but still love in my heart.
I repair'd to my Reason, entreating her aid,
She paus'd on my case, and each circumstance weigh 'd ;
Then gravely pronounc'd, in return to my pray'r,
That Hebe was fairest of all that was fair.
That's a truth, replied I, I've no need to be taught,
I came for a council to find out a fault;
If that's all, quoth Reason, return as you came,
To find fault with Hebe would forfeit my name.
What hopes then, alas ! of relief from my pain,
When like lightning she darts through each throbbing vein ;
My senses surpris'd, in her favour took arms,
And Reason confirms me a slave to her charms.
KEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
677
DI3RRY DOWN.
To this air George Alexander Stevens wrote the song of Liberty Hall, which
is printed in The Muses' Delight, 1757, and in his Collection of Songs, 1772.
Ct was introduced in Midas, 1764, and is now well known as the tune of George
Oolman's song, " Lodgings for Single Gentlemen," contained in his My Night
9-own and Slippers, and in Broad Crrins.
The song of Liberty Hall begins thus :
" Old Homer, but with him what have we to do ?
What are Grecians or Trojans to me or to you ?
Such heathenish heroes no more I'll invoke,
Choice spirits, assist me ! attend, hearts of oak !
Down a down down, down a down down,
Down a down down derry, down a down down."
The first verse of Colman's Song is here printed with the tune.
Gracefully.
"Who has e'er been in London,that o -vergrown place, Has seen "Lodgings to let" stare him
full in the face: Some are good and Jet dear- ly; While some, 'tis well known, Are o
dear and BO bad, they are best let a - lone. Down a down down,
i
= " 1 1
_p!S^_
j f- -r h n
i -
J J ^ _tf
r ^ ^
-.
down a
down down, Down a down down der - ry, down a down down.
E
_ 1 L-Z^^^^I p
1 ' J II
Will Waddle, whose temper was studious and Ionel3 r ,
Hir'd lodgings that took Single Gentlemen only ;
But Will was so fat, he appear'd like a ton,
Or like two single gentlemen roll'd into one. Down a down, &c.
678
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
BENBOW, THE BROTHER TAR'S SONG.
This is taken from a broadside printed with the tune in the first half of the
last century ; but the words are evidently much corrupted. For instance, the
line, " With their noise," at the end of the fourth stanza, cannot be correct, as it
ought to rhyme with " French," and the same words are again substituted, at
the end of the last stanza, for a line that should rhyme with " crying out."
The tune is both quaint and characteristic.
Mr. Halliwell prints the words in Early Naval Ballads of England, from a
broadside published at Salisbury, by Fowler, a noted ballad-printer of the last
century, but the same corruptions are in both copies.
Admiral Benbow was called " the brother tar " because he rose, from being a
common sailor, to the rank of Admiral. His father was Colonel John Benbow,
a Shropshire gentleman and loyal Cavalier, who distinguished himself at the
battle of Worcester, and was there taken prisoner. At the Restoration he could
obtain no better post than one of subordinate rank in the Tower of London at a
salary of eighty pounds a year, and left his family penniless.
Portraits of Admiral Benbow may be seen at Hampton Court Palace and in
the town-hall at Shrewsbury.
Boldly. _=- =
'TT1 1 , . I I \~\
jzajiij-jjy-jHH
^^ -^ * -i^> * ~
/*
Come, all you sai - lors bold, Lend an ear, lend an ear, Come,
all you sai -lors bold, lend an ear; It's of our Admiral's fame, Brave
& r^-i g| ^
|fel
^
*Fl
*=^r^-^Esi^ b =F=,
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Ben - bow call'd by name, How he fought on the main You shall hear, you shall
=*=
CHORUS.
E^E
hear, How he fought on the main
=* f =$l= f ===
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you shall hear, you shall hear.
4-
EEIGN OP QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
679
Brave Benbow he set sail
For to fight, for to fight,
Brave Benbow he set sail for to fight :
Brave Benbow he set sail,
With a fine and pleasant gale,
But his Captains they turn'd tail
1 n a fright, in a fright.
Says Kirby unto Wade,
<: 1 will run, I will run,"
Says Kirby unto Wade, " I will run :
I value not disgrace,
Nor the losing of my place,
My enemies I'll not face
With a gun, with a gun."
Twas the Ruby and Noah's Ark
Fought the French, fought the French,
'Twas the Ruby and Noah's Ark fought the
And there was ten in all, [French :
Poor souls they fought them all,
They valued them not at all,
IS or their noise, nor their noise.
It was our Admiral's lot
With a chain shot, with a chain shot,
It was our Admiral's lot, with a chain shot
Our Admiral lost his legs,
And to his men he begs,
" Fight on, my boys," he says,
" Tis my lot, 'tis my lot."
While the surgeon dress'd his wounds,
Thus he said, thus he said, [said :
While the surgeon dress'd his wounds, thus he
" Let my cradle now in haste
On the quarter-deck be plac'd,
That my enemies I may face
Till I'm dead, till I'm dead."
And there bold Benbow lay
Crying out, crying out,
And there bold Benbow lay, crying out :
" Let us tack about once more,
We'll drive them to their own shore,
I value not half a score,
Nor their noise, nor their noise."
THE WOMEN ALL TELL ME I'M FALSE TO MY LASS.
This is to be found on many broadsides with music, printed between the years
1740 and 1750. The words are included in The Wreath, second edition, 1753
(;md perhaps in the first edition, which I have not seen) ; also in The Bullfinch,
The Convivial Songster, and many similar collections. It is still one of the
most popular of English bacchanalian songs.
" The English," says Camden, " who of all the Northern nations, had been
till now the moderatest drinkers, and most commended for their sobriety, learned
IE these Netherland wars, first to drown themselves with immoderate drinking,
and by drinking others' healths to impair their own. And, ever since, the vice
of drunkenness hath so diffused itself over the whole nation, that in our days
first it was fain to be restrained by severe laws." (Reign of Elizabeth, p. 263.)
" Though I am not old in comparison of other ancient men," says Sir Richard
Hawkins, " I can remember Spanish wine rarely to be found in this kingdom.
Then, hot, burning fevers were not known in England, and men lived many more
years. But since Spanish sacks have been common in our taverns, which (for
conservation*) is mingled with lime in its making, our nation complaineth of
calenturas, of the stone, the dropsy, and infinite other diseases not heard of
before this wine came in frequent use, or but very seldom. To confirm which
my belief, I have heard one of our learnedest physicians affirm that he thought
This passage explains FalstafFs exclamation, " You
rogi e, here's lime in this sack," which has led many to
suppose sack to have been what is termed a "dry" wine.
That it was not so is proved by an act of parliament in
the reign of Henry VIII., which I have not seen quoted
any vhere. It is entitled "An acte to set prices upon
win js to be sold by retaile," and enacts that " No maner
of ] ersons should sel by retayle any Gascoyne, Guion, or
Fre iche wines above eyght pens the gallon; that is to
say( , a peny the pinte, two pence the quarte, four pence
the pottle, and eight pence the gallon : And that Malme-
sies, Romneis, Sackes, nor other swete wines, shoulde be
solde by retayle above twelve pence the gallon, sixpence
the pottle, three pence the quarte, thre halfepence the
pinte." (Anno 34, 35, cap. vii., 1543-4.) The progressive
increase in the prices of wine may be noted by the various
proclamations, one of which, in 1632, fixes the price of
"Sacks and Malagas" at 13 per butt, or ninepence the
quart ; and aiuther, in 1676, at tenpence per pint.
680
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
there died more persons of drinking wine, and using hot spices in their meats and
drinks, than of all other diseases." Observations on his Voyage to the South Sea,
p. 103, fol., 1622.
Moderate time.
The
r - >
wo - men all tell me I'm false to my lass, That I
quit my poor Chloe and stick to my glass; But to youmenofrea - son, my
rea- sons I'll own, And
you don't like them, why let them a - lone.
^ I
f
Although I have left her, the truth I '11 declare ;
I believe she was good, and I'm sure she was
fair;
But goodness and charms in a bumper I see,
That make it as good and as charming as she.
My Chloe had dimples and smiles I must own ;
But, though she could smile, yet in truth she
could frown :
But tell me, ye lovers of liquor divine,
Did you e'er see a frown in a bumper of wine ?
Her lilies and roses were just in their prime ;
Yet lilies and roses are conquer'd by time :
But in wine, from its age, such a benefit
flows,
That we like it the better the older it grows.
They tell me, my love would in time have been
cloy'd, [joy'd:
And that beauty's insipid when once 'tis en-
But in wine I both time and enjoyment defy ;
For the longer I drink the more thirsty am I.
Let murders, and battles, and history prove
The mischiefs that wait upon rivals in love ;
But in drinking, thank heaven, no rival con-
tends, [friends.
For the more we love liquor, the more we are
She, too, might have poison'd the joy of my
life, [strife :
With nurses, and babies, and squalling and
But my wine neither nurses nor babies can
bring ;
And a big-bellied bottle's a mighty good thing.
We shorten our days when with love we engage,
It brings on diseases and hastens old age ;
But wine from grim death can its votaries save,
And keep out t'other leg, when there's one in
the grave.
Perhaps, like her sex, ever false to their word,
She had left me, to get an estate, or a lord ;
But my bumper (regarding nor title nor pelf)
Will stand by me when I can't stand by myself.
Then let my dear Chloe no longer complain ;
She's rid of her lover, and I of my pain :
For in wine, mighty wine, many comforts I
spy ; [and try.
Should you doubt what I say, take a bumper
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
681
THE BREAST KNOT.
This is still a favorite Morris Dance in some parts of Derbyshire and Lanca-
shire. It is contained in Thompson's, and several other Collections of Country
Dances, subsequent to The Dancing Master.
Quick.
-fr^ * i^^T^*f^r\r-^^^
ON YONDER HIGH MOUNTAINS.
This is one of the airs introduced in The Cobbler's Opera, 1729, and in Silvia,
w The Country Burial, 1731.
I have not found any song or ballad commencing, " On yonder high mountains,"
but " Over hills and high mountains " was a very popular ballad in the latter part
of the preceding century, and the tune often referred to.
This is evidently a ballad- tune, and as the metre of " Over hills and high
mountains " exactly suits it, as well as the character of the words, it is probably
the right air.
Copies of "Over hills and high moun tains " are in the Bagford Collection
(343, m. 10, p. 165), and in the Pepys Collection, iii. 165. The ballad is
entitled " The Wandering Maiden, or True Love at length united," &c., " to an
excellent new tune" " Printed by J. Deacon, at the Angel in Guiltspur Street,
without Newgate." It commences thus:
" Over hills and high mountains long time have I gone ;
Ah ! and down by the fountains, by myself all alone ;
Through bushes and briars, being void of all care,
Through perils and dangers for the loss of my dear."
These lines are quite a paraphrase of " Love will find out the way," and were it
not that the tune is said to be "new," and at a date when "Love will find out
tie way " was extremely popular, I should infer them to have been intended for
tli at air. However, Over hills and high mountains is often referred to as a
distinct tune.
In The True Loyalist, or Chevalier's Favourite, 12mo., 1779, is a Jacobite
parody of Over hills and high mountains, but there are too many feet in the
lines. It commences thus :
" Over yon hills, and yon lofty mountain, There fair Flora sat complaining,
\Yhere the trees are clad with snow, For the absence of our King,
And down by yon murm'ring crystal foun- Crying, Charlie, lovely Charlie,
Where the silver streams do flow ; [tain, When shall we two meet again ? "
I suppose " fair Flora " to be intended for Flora Macdonald.
682
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
In the Roxburghe Collection, ii. 470, is " True love without deceit," &c., " to
the tune of Over hills and high mountains ; " commencing
" Unfortunate Strephon ! well may'st thou complain,
Since thy cruel Phillis thy love doth disdain."
Also (ii. 508), " The Wandering Virgin, or The coy lass well fitted: Or the
answer to The Wandering Maiden," &c., " To a pleasant new tune, Over hills and
high mountains"
Both the above were printed by P. Brooksby. The first stanza of the latter
ballad is here printed with the tune.
Slowly and smoothly.
XT n k > a
1^ 1 -J A ~~"-
,--'
cnz c3 i
SJ x* 5
H J^
Saz ^ J
2 * 5 J B i m
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-w=*==N=l s '
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-late, My case you may pi - ty, Take
m c^ .0 m m
heed of
m
a_^_J sj tl
*tO
my fate.
b c
J L CT V
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e c
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How I was for - sa - ken you'll hear it through - out,
But I'll
m
fa
_
tra - vel the world o'er To find my love
FAREWELL, MANCHESTER.
This tune was composed in the early part of the last century by the Rev.
Wm. Felton, prebendary of Hereford. It formed a part of one of his Concertos,
and was afterwards published with variations as Felton's Gavot. It is said to
have been played by the troops of Charles Stuart on quitting Manchester in
December, 1745 : also when the unfortunate Manchester youth, Jemmy Dawson,
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
683
was led to the scaffold in 1746. About the same period some words were written
to it, entitled " A song made on the Peace," a copy of which, bearing the prefix
of " Farewell, Manchester, " and printed with the music, is in the British
Museum (G. 307, p. 230). The song of Farewell, Manchester, is, in all pro-
bability, irrecoverably lost.
The tune has continued in public favour ever since. Felton's variations on it
were kept in print till within the last thirty or forty years, and the Song on the
Peace, " Fill, fill, fill the glass," was sung to the air, within the memory of
several of my musical friends, as arranged for three voices. The following are
the words :
" Fill, fill, fill the glass,
Briskly put it round ;
Joyful news at last
Let the trumpet sound.
Join, with lofty strains,
Lovely nymphs, jolly swains
Peace and plenty shall again
With wealth be crown'd.
Come, come, come, sweet peace,
Ever welcome found ;
Let all discord cease,
Harmony abound. Join with, &c.
The tune is now well known by T. Haynes Bayly's song, " Give that wreath to
me," which Sir John Stevenson adapted to it about twenty-five years ago, and
which was arranged for three voices by the late T. Phillips. Charles Mackay
also wrote a song, " Through the summer night," which was published in The
Illustrated London News, arranged to the air by Sir Henry Bishop.
Two versions of the tune were printed in National English Airs. It is here
coupled with the first stanza of Haynes Bayly's song.
85EE5 ' -J
J
J
i
-d J
-^- -J
t)
* * -3- -{-
Give that wreath to me,
When the ros - es die, . . . Nev - er
1_ ^ ^ .J- J
,J J i J ^
< j.. 17 ^5 CS C
r^
. i _
j
b f-i -1 1
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TfT
let it he Thrown neglected hy. Bloom and scent may perish, Yet those
V
leaves I'll cherish, Hallow 'd hy thy touch, Then give that wreath to me
684
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
SWEET, IF YOU LOVE ME.
This tune was introduced into several of the ballad-operas, such as The
Fashionable Lady, 1730 ; The Livery Rake, 1733 ; The Woman of Taste, 1738 ;
&c. It was also printed on broadsides to a " Dialogue between Sly and Lovett,
at Fielding's Booth, at Bartholomew Fair."
There are four different songs to it, " Sweet, if you love me, tell me so ; "
" Sweet, if you love me, come away ; " " Sweet, if you love me, smiling turn ; "
and " Sweet, if you love me, let me go."
Trippingly.
_] 1 . ....
7f %-p- i n i H
1 1
} 73
~9 J
Co * * ' J J-T-3-J 3
__! ^ _
1
* fi
er * i
Sweet, if you love me,
>-f 9 ^ 1
let me go,
^
let me go
i
let me go !
Y7T^ /i
~^1 ^
_ k. Q|
T! \ y ^n *
i n i r~
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4j -1 j LJ, 1
__! j 1 ^_j_|_
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1 H9 J J 1 9 J
J m J J
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9 J r-rs
! 9 9 \ 9 *
9 ai- 9
9 ~ 9 ^ - ^.9
Sweet, if you love me, let me go ! What 'tis you mean I do not know
_ja - _ ^ jq , & &
, But fear you are re -
. ^^ _
_.
1
h ^ h
. 01
Q 3
dim.
m
P
^4-^4^
-*
^
- solv'd to Let me go,
m
let me go! Ee-solv'd to force a maid to mar-ry.
L_
fe=^
l=m
TOUCH THE THING.
Touch the thing being a vulgar song with a good tune, Miss Catley sang other
words to it in TJw Golden Pippin, and with great success. From that time
(1773) comic songs have been written to it without number.
" Push about the jorum " is the burden of the song in The Golden Pippin,
and the tune is now generally known by that name.
In the Roxburghe Collection, iii. 765, and in Ritson's Durham Garland, are
copies of "A new song called Hark to Winchester ! or the Yorkshire Volunteer?
Farewell to the good folks of Stockton. Tune, Push about the jorum." The
Roxburghe copy was printed at Stockton.
Among the late songs which were sung to the tune, and attained popularity,
is one on the coronation of her present Majesty, and a second on an order
from the Admiralty which obliged sailors to cut off their pigtails.. The latter
is entitled " The British Sailor's Lament," and was written by Mr. William Ball.
The first stanza of "Hark to Winchester ! " is here adapted to the tune.
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
685
Cheerfully.
You Stockton lads and lass - es too, Come lis - ten to my sto - ry, A
dis-mal tale, be - cause 'tis true, I've now to lay be - fore ye: We must a-way, our
Yorkshire vol-un - teers, O : Fal lal la la, fal lal la la, Fal lal re ral de
ri - do, Fal lal la la, fal lal la la, Fal lal de ral de ri - do
If
THERE LIVES A LASS UPON THE GREEN.
THs is one of the airs which were introduced in the ballad-opera of The
Jovial Crew in 1731. I have not found the original words, but a song commencing
in a very similar manner, " A lass there lives upon the green," was set to music
by Mr. Courteville. On comparing the two, I find Courteville's music to be quite
different, and therefore the words were probably different also.
The song in The Jovial Crew is thus prefaced by Rachel, who sings it : "I re-
member an old song of my nurse's, every word of which she believ'd as much as
her Psalter, that used to make me long, when I was a girl, to be abroad in a
moor i light night."
686 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
Gracefully.
gft NT
:p=it
m
1=*
^^:
At night, by moon - light, on the plain, With rap - ture how I've
. r-^J -K
At - tend - ed by her harm- less train, The lit - tie fai - ry
'
J u-^z^^-nj d=J^i=P
1
s-h
J . 3 " =
queen. . . . Her
mid - night re - vels
sweet - ly keep ; While
h-
-f p H *,
p
f
J
-v
* ! H- J
L_^i : - 1
1-
mor - tals are in - volv'd in sleep, They trip it o'er the green.
J - J~Z^T- j__^4^~r r^
5
s
But where they danc'd their cheerful round
The morning would disclose,
For where their nimble feet do bound
Each flow'r unbidden grows:
The daisy, fair as maids in May,
The cowslip in his gold array,
And blushing violet, 'rose.
RULE, BRITANNIA.
The music of this noble " ode in honour of Great Britain," which, according to
Southey, " will be the political hymn of this country as long as she maintains her
political power," was composed by Dr. Arne for his masque of Alfred, and first
performed at Cliefden House, near Maidenhead, on August 1, 1740. Cliefden was
then the residence of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and the occasion was to com-
memorate the accession of George I., and in honour of the birthday of the young
Princess Augusta. The masque gave so much satisfaction that it was repeated
on the following night.
Dr. Arne afterwards altered it into an opera, and it was so performed at Drury
Lane Theatre, on March, 20, 1745, for the benefit of Mrs. Arne. In the
advertisements of that performance, and in another of the following month, Dr.
Arne entitles Rule, Britannia, lt a celebrated ode ; " from which it may be
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II. 687
inferred that (although the entire masque had not been performed in public),
Rult, Britannia, had then attained popularity. Some detached pieces of the
masque had been sung in Dublin, on the occasion of Arne's visit with his wife,
but no record of any other public performances has hitherto been discovered.
The words of the masque were by Thomson and Mallet, but Thomson seems to
have taken the lead in the affair, since, in the newspapers of the day, he alone
is mentioned as the author. In the book, the names of Thomson and Mallet are
both given.
The authorship of Rule, Britannia, has been ascribed to Thomson, by Ritson
and other authorities, but a claim has recently been made for Mallet, on the
strength of an advertisement prefixed by him to an altered edition of Alfred,
in 1751, after Thomson's death. He writes thus: "According to the present
arrargement of the fable, I was obliged to reject a great deal of what I had
written in the other ; neither could I retain of my friend's part more than three
or four single speeches and a part of one song." It appears, however, that three
stanzas of Rule, Britannia, were retained, and three others added by Lord
Bolingbroke : such an argument in favour of Mallet is therefore very inconclusive.
The only point in it is, that Mallet uses the word " song" in the advertisement,
and retains the title of " ode " in the book ; but Rule, Britannia, may with
equal accuracy be described as a song. Would Mallet have allowed Lord Boling-
broke so to mutilate the most successful song in the piece, if it had been his own ?
For internal evidence in favour of Thomson, see his poems, " Britannia," and
Liberty." Further information about Rule, Britannia, will be found in Dr.
Dinsdale's excellent edition of Mallet's works, and in the pages of Notes and
Queries, including a refutation of M. Schoelcher's charge against Arne of having
copied from Handel. See 2nd Series, Nos. 86, 99, 103, 109, 111, and 120.
Ride, Britannia, soon became a favorite with the Jacobite party. Ritson men-
tions a Jacobite parody, of which he was unable to procure a copy, but the chorus
ran thus: "Rise, Britannia! Britannia, rise and fight!
Restore your injured monarch's right."
Another will be found in The True Royalist; Or Chevalier's favorite, being a
collect ion of Elegant Songs never before printed. It is entitled " A Song.
Tune. When Britain first, at hearings command. As the book is not easily
procured, the song is subjoined :
" Britinnia, rouse at heav'n's command! He (Neptune-like), Britannia, will defy
And crown thy native Prince again; All but the thunder of the sky.
Then Peace shall bless thy happy land, The happiest sta t es must yield to thee,
And Plenty pour in from the mam : When free from dire corrup ti on ' 8 thrall ;
Then Aalt thou be Britannia, thou shalt Of land and 8ea thou1t Emp ' ror be
From home and foreign tyrants free, [be ^nd ride triumphant round the ball :
Behold, great Charles ! thy godlike son, Britannia, unite ! Britannia must prevail,
With majesty and sweetness crown'd ; Her powerful hand must guide the scale.
His worth th' admiring world doth own, T1 Britons, rouse! with trumpets'
And fame's loud trump proclaims the gound [June 12]
Bound. Proclaim this solemn, happy day !
Thy captain him, Britannia, him declare ! Let mirth> with cheerM music crown ' d>
f kings and heroes he s the heir. Drive gullen thoughts and cares away !
The 8< cond hope young Hero claims, Come, Britons, sing ! Britannia draw thy
Th' extended empire of the main ; sword,
His braast with fire and courage flames, And use it for thy rightful lord ! "
With Nature's bounds to fix tliy reign.
688
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
This is followed by another, commencing
" When our great Prince, with his choice band,
Arriv'd from o'er the azure main,
Heav'n smil'd with pleasure, with pleasure on the land,
And guardian Angels sung this strain :
Go, brave hero ; brave hero, boldly go,
And wrest thy sceptre from thy foe."
The music of Ride, Britannia, was first printed at the end of the masque of
The Judgment of Paris, which appeared before Alfred, Arne having composed
the music to both.
Majestically.
:l:
When Bri -tain first . . . at Hear'n's com - mand A - rose . . . .
4-
- Q
j^j J I Jry-M^
5=?
from out the a - - zure main, A -rose, arose, a - rose from out the a - zure
^m
p^TTTf^fi
main ; This was the char-ter,
1
the char - ter of the land, And guardian
JEEE^
=
77
gels sung this strain : Rule, Bri - tannia, Bri - tannia, rule the
m
W
m
^
&
Bri - tons ne-ver, never, ne - ver will he slaves.
.2 -? * t
m
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II. 689
The nations not so blest as thee, Will but arouse thy generous flame ;
Must in their turns to tyrants fall ; But work their woe, and thy renown.
While thou shalt flourish great and free, Rule, Britannia, &c.
The dread and envy of them all.
Rule, Britannia, &c. To thee belongs the rural reign ;
Thy cities shall with commerce shine ;
Still more majestic shalt thou rise, A11 thine sha11 be the subject main,
More dreadful from each foreign stroke : And ever y shor T f * circles thme
As the loud blast that tears the skies, Rule > Britannia, &c.
Serves but to root thy native oak. The Museg> stm with freedom found
Rule, Britannia, &c. Shall to th y happy coast repair .
Blest Isle ! with matchless beauty crown'd,
Thee haughty tyrants ne'er shall tame, And manly hearts to guide the fair.
All their attempts to bend thee down Rule, Britannia, &c.
BEGONE, DULL CARE.
The late T. Dibdin informed me that the great popularity of Begone, dull
Care, may be dated from its revival in a pantomime ballet called William Tell,
performed at Sadler's Wells in 1793. His own first dramatic attempt, The
RiV'il Loyalists, was produced on the same night.
The tune seems to have been derived from The Queen's Jigg, which is contained
in The Dancing Master, in and after 1701, and was reprinted in National
English Airs.
One verse of the words is in Play ford's Pleasant Musical Companion, Part II.,
1687, set as a catch by John Jackson, and two are to be found in The Syren,
The Merry Companion, The Aviary, The BucKs Delight, and other collections of
the last century.
The stanza in the Pleasant Musical Companion is as follows :
" Begone, old Care, and I prithee be gone from me,
For i'faith, old Care, thee and I shall never agree ;
'Tis long thou hast liv'd with me, and fain thou wouldst me kill,
But i'faith, old Care, thou never shalt have thy will."
The next version is
" Begone, old Care, I prithee be gone from me ;
Begone, old Care, you and I shall never agree ;
Long time you have been vexing me, and fain you would me kill,
But i'faith, old Care, thou never shalt have thy will.
Too much care will make a young man look grey,
And too much care will turn an old man to clay :
Come, you shall dance, and I will sing, so merrily we will play,
For I hold it one of the wisest things to drive old Care away."
The words seem to have been suggested by a song of much earlier date; one
very popular in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I, :
*' Care, away go thou from me,
I am no fit mate for thee," <fec.
This is to be found, with music, in a manuscript of the sixteenth century, in
Trinity College, Dublin (F. 5, 13, No. 5) ; and in another (dated 1639), which
passed through the hands of Cranston, Leyden, and Heber, and is now in the
Advocate's Library, Edinburgh.
The first time I find "Begone, dull Care," instead "Begone, old Care," is in
690
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
The EucMs Delight for 1798. It is there stated to be as " sung this season at
Sadler's Wells ; " and has a third stanza, which it is not necessary to reprint.
Cheerfully.
m
Be - gone, dull
care! .
I prithee be - gone from me ! Be -
SJ
time thouhast been tar-ry ing here, And fain thou would'st me kill, Buti
^
^
^
I
faith, dull
Thou nev - er shalt have thy will. .
Too much care will make a young man turn grey,
And too much care will turn an old man to clay.
My wife shall dance and 1 will sing, so merrily pass the day,
For I hold it one of the wisest things to drive dull care away.
GEE HO, DOBBIN.
This song of Gree ho, Dobbin, was printed with the tune on broadsides, one of
which is in the Burney Collection, British Museum ; also in Apollo's Cabinet, or
The Muses' Delight, ii. 232, 1757. This last-named Collection was printed in
Liverpool, by John Sadler, in Harrington Street.
Laugh and lay down is another name for the tune, and it derives it from a song
commencing " While others attempt heavy minutes to kill,
With Ombre, with Commerce, Picquette, and Quadrille."
This was also printed on broadsides with the tune.
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
691
Gee ho, Dobbin, was introduced in Love in a Village, 1762, to the words,
" If you want a young man with a true honest heart." It is also to be found in
Thompson's and many other collections of country-dances.
Oliver Goldsmith, in his description of " The Club of Choice Spirits," makes
the pimple-nosed gentleman sing Gree ho, Dobbin.
The new and old versions of the tune differ considerably, but the limit of space
forbids the printing more than one. The following is the popular form:
Cheerfully.
: B
As I was a driv-ing my waggon one day, I met a young damsel, tight,
luxom, and gay, I kindly ae-costed her with a low bow, And I felt my whole bo-dy I
EfEECJ^n-
: i i i i r i P" K , i i :p-f-i
=^r=^&s=^^
annot tell how : Gee ho, dobbin, hi ho, dobbin, Gee ho, dobbin, gee up and gee ho
~ i=s , hM= "
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.
The simplicity and grandeur of our national air is too universally admitted,
to require comment. Its adoption in Hanover, Brunswick, Prussia, Saxony,
Weimar, Sweden, and Russia (at least till 1833, when the new Russian anthem
was composed), sufficiently proves that its admiration is not confined to England.
In Switzerland it is the air of the federal cantons, " Rufst du, mein Vaterland,"
and is occasionally played as a voluntary in the churches. In Germany it is
"Hail to thee in the crown of victory" (" Heil dir im Sieges Kranz") ; or a
song of united Germany, for God, Freedom, and Fatherland (" Brause, du Frei-
heitsang"). The Austrians sing Haydn's hymn, " Gott erhalte Franz den
Kaiser ! " but it has been justly remarked that, " with all its melody and sweet-
ness, the Austrian hymn has too much of the psalm in it ; it wants the manly,
majestic, full-hearted boldness of the strains, in which we are accustomed to
express not more our respect for our monarch, than our love for our country. "
Much research has been bestowed on the endeavour to ascertain the origin
both of the words and the music; and to collect all that has been said, would fill
2 x
(592
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
volumes, and far exceed the limits that can be here devoted to it. Dismissing,
therefore, many of the vague and unsupported assertions that have at various
times been made, the enquiry will be confined to a few of the favourite theories
which have obtained more or less credence as they have appeared to be supported
by proof.
1. In the Souvenirs de la Marquise de Grequi, " Grand Dieu, sauve le Roi "
is said to have been sung by the nuns of St. Cyr to Louis XIV., the music to
have been composed by Lully, and Lully' s music to be the same as our " God
save the King." This story has been recently revived in Raikes's Diary. In
answer, it is only necessary to refer the reader to the June number of the Quarterly
Revieiv, for 1834, where he may satisfy himself, that the memoirs of Madame de
Crequi are fictitious, and that the work is a modern novel. The music of Lully is a
myth ; and as to Handel's having procured a copy when in France, and palmed it
on George I. and the English nation as his own composition, not one syllable can
be found throughout his life or writings, of his having made such a claim. On
the contrary, his musical amanuensis, John Christopher Smith, is the very person
who ascribes the authorship to Henry Carey.
2. Mr. Pinkerton, in his Recollections of Paris, ii. 4, says that "the supposed
national air is a mere transcript of a Scottish anthem." Pinkerton's " Scottish
anthem " is an English Christmas Carol, copied into a Scotch publication. See
" Remember, thou man," ante i. 373.
3. A writer in The G-entleman' s Magazine, for March, 1796, p. 208, says,
" The original tune of God save the King, the tune at least which evidently fur-
nished the subject of it, is to be found in a book of Harpsichord lessons, published
by Purcell's widow, in Dean's Yard, Westminster." The work referred to is
" A choice Collection of Lessons for the Harpsichord or Spinnet, composed by the
late Mr. Henry Purcell." Printed for Mrs. Frances Purcell, &c., 1696. The
following is the lesson :
r J J-
It resembles " God save the King," but is not more like it, than " Franklin is fled
away" (ante i. 370), Dr. Bull's " Ayre," and several others.
4. In 1849, the Rev. W. H. Henslowe published new words of his own to
" the royal anthem of England," and claimed the music for Anthony Young,
organist of Allhallows, Barking, in the reign of James II. This was on the au-
thority of Mrs. Henslowe, then living, who stated that she received " a legacy of
100, on the death of Mrs. Arne (6th October, 1789), being the accumulated
REIGN OP QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II. 693
amount of a yearly pension of 30, awarded to Mrs. Arne (as the eldest surviving
descendant of Anthony Young, the composer of the Royal anthem) by King
George III., through the representation of Francis Godolphin, then Marquis of
Carmarthen, afterwards Duke of Leeds." I suppose the words in the parenthesis,
u as the eldest surviving descendant," &c., to be Mrs. Henslowe's inference; but if
not, it would appear that George III. granted a pension to the widow of Dr. Arne,
not on account of her deceased husband's great eminence as a composer, but
because she was the granddaughter of a musician who composed a national anthem
for the Stuarts. Mrs. Henslowe does not explain how, if Mrs. Arne's grandfather
composed the air, Dr. Arne could have been so ignorant of the fact, as to have
naid, when interrogated upon the subject, that " he had not the least knowledge,
nor could he guess at all, who was the author or the composer." Even if Mrs.
Arne only made the discovery after her husband's death, Dr. Burney, who was a
pupil of Dr. Arne, would surely have heard of it; but he also expressed his inability
to give any account of the authorship. This claim is too feebly supported to
receive any serious attention.
The enquiry into the three remaining claims, will be best prefaced by the
accounts that were given at the time of the first public performance of " God
save the King " at the theatres. In the month of September, 1745, and during
the rebellion, it was sung both at Drury Lane and Covent Garden theatres ; Dr.
Arne harmonizing it for Drury Lane, and his pupil, Burney, for Covent Garden.
The first of these performances is thus noticed in The Daily Advertiser of Mon-
day, Sept. 30, 1745 : " On Saturday night last, the audience at the Theatre
Royal, Drury Lane, were agreeably surprised by the gentlemen belonging to that
house performing the anthem of God save our nolle King. The universal
applause it met with, being encored with repeated huzzas, sufficiently denoted
in how just an abhorrence they hold the arbitrary schemes of our insidious ene-
mies, and detest the despotick attempts of Papal power." Next, in The General
Advertiser of Oct. 2, 1745 : " At the Theatre in Goodman's Fields, by
desire, G-od save the King, as it was performed at the Theatre Royal in Drury
Lane, with great applause." Thirdly, among the published letters of " that
dramatic enthusiast," Benjamin Victor (i. 118, 8vo., 1776), is one addressed to
Garrick, bearing the date of Oct., 1745, in which he says, " The stage (at both
3 louses) is the most pious, as well as the most loyal place in the three kingdoms.
Twenty men appear at the end of every play ; and one, stepping forward from the
rest, with uplifted hands and eyes, begins singing, to an old anthem tune, the
following words :
" Lord, our God, arise, Send him victorious,
Confound the enemies Happy and glorious,
Of George our King ! Long to reign over us,
God -save the King !
which are the very words, and music, of an old anthem that was sung at St.
James's Chapel, for King James the Second, when the Prince of Orange landed
to deliver us from popery and slavery ; which God Almighty, in his goodness,
was pleased not to grant."
694 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
The above letter is the authority for the fifth claim, and it derives some sup-
port from the evidence of Dr. Burney, who tells us that, when Dr. Arne was
applied to for information about it, he said, "He had not the least knowledge, nor
could he guess at all, who was either the author or the composer, but that it was a
received opinion that it was written for the Catholic Chapel of James II." Dr.
Burney stated to the Duke of Gloucester, that " the earliest copy of the words
with which we are acquainted, begins ' God save great James our King' " (see
Morning Post, Nov. 2, 1814) ; and in Rees's Gyclopcedia, he says, " We believe
that it was written for King James II., while the Prince of Orange was hovering
over the coast; and when he became king, who durst own or sing it ? " It also
appears that Dr. Benjamin Cooke, organist of Westminster Abbey, from about
1780 to 1790, had heard it sung, " God save great James our King." (See letter
of E. J., in the Gentleman's Magazine, Jan. 20, 1796.)
It is singular that neither Hawkins nor Burney should have mentioned " God
save the King " in their respective histories of music. In the year 1745,
Hawkins was twenty-six years of age, and Burney nineteen. Burney came to
London the year before, and was then a performer in the orchestra. He therefore
had peculiar facilities for obtaining information, if he had desired it. No interest
seems to have been taken in the enquiry, until some years after those histories
were published.
The sixth claim is on behalf of Henry Carey. About the year 1795, when
a pension of 200 a year had been granted to Charles Dibdin, on account
of the favourable influence which his naval songs had over the British seamen,
George Savile Carey made a journey to Windsor in the hope of a similar
recompense. He relates in his Balnea, that he was advised to beg the inter-
ference of a gentleman residing in the purlieus of Windsor Castle, that he
would be kind enough to explain this matter rightly to the Sovereign, " thinking
it not improbable that some consideration might have taken place, and some little
compliment be bestowed on the offspring of one 4 who had done the state some
service.' >:> He was met with this answer, " Sir, I do not see, because your father
was the author of GOD SAVE THE KING, that the king is under any obligation to
his son." G. S. Carey could not assert anything respecting the authorship from
his own knowledge, having been born in 1742, and his father having died in 1743.
Henry Carey is the first person who is recorded to have sung " God save the
King " in public, and he was in the habit of writing both the words and music
of his songs. John Christopher Smith, who composed the music to an opera
called Teraminta, of which Carey wrote the drama, asserts that Carey took the
words and music of " God save the King " to him, to correct the base. His evi-
dence is contained in a letter from Dr. Harington, the celebrated physician and
amateur musician of Bath, addressed to G. S. Carey, and dated June 13th, 1795 :
" Dear Sir, The anecdote you mention, respecting your father's being the author
and composer of the words and music of ' God save the King,' is certainly true. That
most respectable gentleman, my worthy friend and patient, Mr. Smith, has often told
me what follows : viz., ' that your father came to him with the words and music,
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II. 695
desiring him to correct the bass, which was not proper ; and at your father's request,
Mr. Smith wrote another bass in correct harmony.' Mr. Smith, to whom I read your
letter this day, repeated the same account, and on his authority I pledge myself for
the truth of the statement. H. HARINGTON."
The proof of Carey's having sung it in 1740 (five years before it became gene-
rally known), rests upon the evidence of Mr. Townsend, who in 1794 stated to
Mr. John Ashley, of Bath, that his father dined with Henry Carey at a tavern
in Cornhill, in the year 1740, at a meeting convened to celebrate Admiral
Vernon's capture of Portobello, and that " Carey sang it on that occasion." He
adds that " the applause he received was very great, especially when he announced
it to be his own composition." (Vide Ashley's letter to the Rev. W. L. Bowles,
1828.) This receives some confirmation from the writer of a letter to the
Gentleman's Magazine, in 1796, who says, " The first time I ever heard the
anthem of ' God save the King,' was about the year 1740, on some public occasion
at a tavern in Cornhill."
7. Now as to the claim of Dr. John Bull.
This was first suggested by the writer of the following letter in the Gentleman* s
Magazine, dated from W m Hall, Sep. 9, 1816.
" In Ward's Lives of Professors of Gresham College, page 200, it is stated that
Dr. John Bull was, in 1596, chosen first Professor of Music in Gresham College,
and that he was chief organist to King James I. ; and at p. 201, it states that
in 1607 he resigned his professorship, but lived in England until 1613, when
he went abroad, and did not return : then follows a list of his musical works in
manuscript, in the possession of Dr. Pepusch ; among them, at p. 205, is ' God save
tho King.' I think it is somewhere said, that these manuscripts of Dr. Bull, as in
Dr. Pe'pusch's collection, were placed in Sion College. If this be so, the reference is
easy : and if the tune there, be the same with the popular air all Englishmen hear
with pleasure, the enquiry is set at rest ; and it will be no stretch of imagination to
suppose, that it was brought forward in compliment to King James I., when, accord-
ing to the anecdote, Dr. Bull played before him at Merchant Tailors' Hall, upon a
em ill pair of organs. If the tune be different, Mr. Carey will have a stronger claim
from the enquiry to be considered as the author of the favorite air : one claimant will
be struck off the list." " R.S."
The late Richard Clark, one of the Gentlemen of Her Majesty's Chapels Royal,
had published an account of " God save the King " in the preface to " Poetry of
the most favorite Glees, Madrigals, Duets, &c." two years before the appearance
of this letter, and he had then given Henry Carey the credit of the authorship ;
but in 1822, he produced another Account of the National Anthem, transferring
it to Dr. Bull, without having even seen the manuscript.* The errors in Clark's
book have already been so frequently exposed, that it will only be necessary to
allude to one of his mis-representations in the present enquiry. At p. 57, he
Ttiis is proved not only by his note on " God save the 1822, he says, " I continued my enquiries until event-
King." in the book, but also by the following passage in ually I was enabled to obtain a sight of, and finally to
his circular addressed to the " Masters, Wardens," &c.,of purchase (in the handwriting of the composer, Dr. John
the City Companies, one of which is now before me, dated Bull) this long-lost manuscript." Clark purchased it
November, 1841. After alluding to his publication of in 1840.
696 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
cites a copy of the music in a manuscript book, once the property of Thomas
Britton, the musical small-coal-man, as a proof " that the air was known some
years before James II. was crowned, the date of the book being 1676." This
manuscript (now in the library of the Sacred Harmonic Society) was then in
the possession of John Sydney Hawkins, F.S.A., by whom it was shown to
me. It bears the following inscription, " Deane Monteage, given him by his
father, 1676," but the music could not have been written even in the time of
Thomas Britton, who died in 1714. It is in the same handwriting as " Sweet
Annie fra' the sea beach came," by Dr. Greene, several pieces by Bononcini and
Handel, and among others, " The dead March " in Saul. Handel's oratorio of
Saul was first published in 1740. Clark was quite aware that the music of " God
save the King " could not have been written there, at the date of the book, for
Hawkins had drawn his attention to the preceding pieces, which are in the
same hand-writing. His mis-statement has been copied without acknowledgment,
in " An account of the Grand Musical Festival at York, by John Crosse, Esq.,
F.S.A., F.R.S."
Instead of making proper search for Dr. Bull's manuscript, Clark contented
himself with printing the list of its contents from Ward's Lives of the Professors
of Gresham College, and when he arrived at the piece entitled " God save the
King," adding the following curious note : " Here then is a positive, incontro-
vertible, and undeniable claim ly Dr. Bull, to the tune of " God save the King,"
as composed by him in honour of King James I. It must be the same tune
which is sung at the present time, because it has never yet appeared that there
were two of a similar description. This circumstance alone proves that fact, at
least it must be so admitted until another is produced, supported by evidence
sufficiently strong to invalidate the title claimed by the former."
Dr. Bull's manuscript was not in Sion College, but in the possession of Dr.
Kitchener, who entirely disproved Clark's theory, by publishing Dr. Bull's " God
save the King." It is a piece on four notes, =: \ | corresponding
with the four words, " God save the King," and was probably intended to
represent the cry when the king appeared. These four notes are repeated over
and over, with twenty-six different bases, and occupy seven pages of the
manuscript.
At the death of Dr. Kitchener, Clark purchased the book for 20, and then
announced that the air of " God save the King " was really contained in it. It
is a curious fact (of which he could not have been aware when he published his
account) that an " ayre " at page 98 of the manuscript is very like our " God
save the King." The piece which is therein entitled " God save the King," is at
page 66, and the same which Kitchener published. When Clark played the " ayre "
to me, with the book before him, I thought it to be the original of the national
anthem ; but afterwards, taking the manuscript into my own hands, I was con-
vinced that it had been tampered with, and the resemblance strengthened, the
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
697
sharps being in ink of a much darker colour a than other parts. The additions are
very perceptible, in spite of Clark's having covered the face of that portion with
varnish. In its original state, the " ayre " commenced with these notes :
| I r
__^. 3F
The g being natural, the resemblance to " God save
tlie King " does not strike the ear, but by making the g sharp, and changing the
whole from an old scale without sharps or flats, into the modern scale of A major
(three sharps), the tune becomes essentially like " God save the King." When
I reflected further upon the matter, it appeared very improbable that Dr. Bull
should have composed a piece for the organ in the modern key of A major. The
most curious part of the resemblance between Dr. Bull's ayre and " God save
the King " is, that the first phrase consists of six bars, and the second of eight,
which similarity does not exist in any other of the airs from which it is sup-
posed to have been taken. It is true, that the eight bars of the second phrase
are made out by holding on the final note of the melody through two bars,
therefore it differs decidedly from all copies of our more modern tune; but the
words may be sung to Dr. Bull's "ayre" by dividing the time of the long notes,
in fact, it has been so performed in public.
My readers may be curious to see the " ayre " as it was sung before the late
King of Hanover, at the Concerts of Ancient Music, and at other public con-
certs ; and I am enabled, through the kindness of Dr. Rimbault, to gratify them.
The late R. Clark lent the voice-parts, which had been used on those occasions, to
Dr. Rimbault, for performance at his lectures on music in Liverpool. Dr.
Rimbault copied them in score for his own use (to conduct the performance), and
h.-is favoured me with the following transcript.
i
jg F-s> ^- : H=
ft
1 ' I
3 With regard to the alterations that have been made in
thi ; manuscript, I offered in the pages of Notes and Queries
(2nd S., No. 74) that if Mrs. Clark would submit the
ma auscript to any competent judges of writing, and they
sh< uld decide that it has not been tampered with, I would
for eit 10 to a charity. This offer was communicated to
Mi j. Clark, and declined. The manuscript had been in
the possession of Dr. Pepusch until 1752, and " God save
tin King" was performed at both the great theatres in
1745. Although some may possess rare books and not
acquaint themselves with their contents, Dr. Pepusch can-
not be classed among the number ; indeed, he gave Ward
the catalogue of contents for his Lives of the Gresham
Professors, and taught his wife to play from old books of
this kind. Had the resemblance of Dr. Bull's "ayre"
been then as great to " God save the King" as it now is,
I can scarcely imagine it could have escaped his obser-
vation. Again, while in Dr. Kitchener's possession, the
G98 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
From what I have said above, it will be understood, that in this copy the
" ayre " has been transposed, and changed into the modern key of G major.
The first note of the tune should (in this key) be D, and, instead of four G's
at the end, the first G in the thirteenth bar should be held through that and
the fourteenth, to the termination of the tune. I have other doubts about
the accuracy of the copy, but cannot resolve them from memory, and the
permission to compare it with the original has been refused.
If we could suppose the sharps to have been omitted by the error of the copyist,
(for it is not the autograph of the composer, as stated by Clark, but a Dutch tran-
script of his compositions, throughout which he is styled Dr. Jan Bull, 8 ) we might
imagine our " God save the King " to have been copied imperfectly from it, but
there are two other treatments of the same subject in the manuscript, which do
not bear out the supposition.
One particular point to which I would draw attention, is, that all the research
devoted to the subject, has hitherto failed in adducing a single instance of such
a hymn or anthem having been sung on a public occasion before 1740. We have
an abundance of national songs, anthems, hymns, &c., including many in which
these words have been introduced, but not this. As to the cries of " God save
the King," and " Long live the King," they are to be found in the translations
of the Old Testament, and most abundantly in the history of our country. We
have an anthem for Henry VII., and his Queen, Elizabeth of York
" God Stave King Henrie, wheresoever he be,
And for Queen Elizabeth now pray we,
And all her noble projeny."
In the " State Papers published under the authority of Her Majesty's Commis-
sion," we find among the Lord Admiral's Orders on the 10th of August, 1545
" No. 11. The watch wourde in the night shal be thus, ' God save King Henrye,'
thother shall aunswer, < And long to raign over us.' ' :
Mr. J. G. Nichols, in his London Pageants, quotes a " God save the King "
for Edward VI., from Leland's Collectanea, iv., 310. It commences
" King Edward, King Edward,
God save King Edward,
King Edward the Sixth," &c.
manuscript was submitted to the scrutiny of Edward Waelrant: qu'en.lG20 il habitoit la maison joignant
Jones, the Welsh Bard, who wrote out one of the pieces 1'Eglise du cot6 de la Place Verte; actuellement habitee
for Dr. Kitchener in modern notation. Finally, in 1840, par le Concierge de Notre Dame; qu'il mourut le 12 ou
I looked through it to find any popular tunes, when asked 13 Mars, 1628, et fut enterrfe le 15 du m6me mois ; que pen-
by Mr. Edward Walsh to estimate its value. This was dant le temps qu'il fut Organiste i Anvers, de grandes
prior to its passing into the hands of Mr. Clark. ameliorations furent apportes aux orgues, et qu'il sur-
veilla les travaux, en y cooperant meme. Enfin qu'il dut
" In the course of making enquiries at Antwerp, as to sa nomination a la place d' Anvers, en grande partie a la
whether any of Dr. Bull's manuscripts were still in the raceommendation du Magistral de cette ville. Sa sig-
library of that Cathedral (which, I regret to say, was nature est a peu pres celled. . . .Dans les comptes et quit-
answered in the negative), I received through M.Jules tances Flamandes on 1'appelle Doctor Jan Bull. Dr. John
de Glimes, the following letter from a distinguished anti- Bull n'etoit, du reste, pas le seul Anglais qui residat
quary, the Chevalier Leon de Burbure. It will serve to a Anvers zl la mgme epoque: je tiouve parmi les pretres
correct some of the mistakes about Dr. Bull's history, chapelains ' Joannes Beake (en Latin Beckius), Anglus,
and it shows how many English were at Antwerp at the 1598 a 1607; Joannes Starkeus, 1613 a 1636 ; Anthoinus
time. The letter bears date the 19th June, 1856: Sanderus, Anglus, 1611 a 1622; Adamus Gordonius,
"Impossible de rien vous dire sur le manuscrit dont Scottus, 1627 a 1640; Thomas Covert, 1598; Edmundus
vous me parlez dans votre lettre d'hier. J'ignoresi jamais Lewkenor, 1598; Gulielmus Clederoe, 1598; Robertus
la Cathedrale d'Anvers en a possede du Docteur John Bruckius, 1598; Fitzgerald, 1600.'"
Bull, mais en tout cas il n'en reste plus de traces depuis In printing a translation of this letter in The Musical
longtemps. Les seuls faits relatifs a John Bull que j'ai World, the Irish editor of that periodical added "Ir-
decouverts sont : qu'il devint organiste de Notre Dame landus " after Fitzgerald's name. He may have guessed
& Anvers en 1617, en- remplaccment de feu Rumold rightly, but it is not so stated in the letter.
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II. 699
For James I. we have " A song of Praise and Thanksgiving to God, for the
King's Majesty's Happy Reigne;" reprinted by Dr. Rimbault in Notes and
Queries (2nd S. No. 126), with the burthen:
" God save King James, and still pull downe,
All those that would annoy his crowne : "
as well as " A Song or Psalme of Thanksgiving, in remembrance of our great
deliverance from the Gun-powder treason, the fift of November, 1605," com-
mencing " Lord ! we have continuall cause
Thy mercies to remember."
This is among the proclamations, &c., in the Library of the Society of Antiquaries.
In Naile's Account of the Queen's Entertainment at Bristol, 1613, we find
" The bels most joyously did ring with musick's symphony,
And still these words, 'God save our Queene/ re-echoed in the side."
And at James's entertainment at both Universities, 1614-15
" Oxford cried, ' God save the King/ and ' Bless him,' too, cried some,
But Cambridge men, more learnedly, ' Behold, the King doth come.' "
For Charles L, in Herbert's Vox Secunda Populi, 4to., 1641
" Have you not seen men holloo forth this straine,
God save our King and the Lord Chamberlaine ? "
And in The Last Age's Looking G-lass
" Let Charles's glorie through England ring,
Let subjects say, ' God save the King.' "
At Charles the Second's coronation (and perhaps at others preceding it), the
anthem sung by the quire, was, " Sadoc the priest and Nathan the prophet
anointed Solomon King, and all the people rejoiced and said, God save the King."
The favorite national songs for all the Stuarts from Charles I. downwards,
wore, " The King shall enjoy his own again " (or, " enjoys his own," according
to circumstances), and " Vive le Roy." (Ante 429 and 434.) Before I had
seen a copy of the latter, it puzzled me to find such passages, as in Pepys's Diary,
where, on May 4, 1660, " The loud Vive le Roys were echoed from one ship's
company to another." I could not understand the sailors' singing out in Norman
French; nor why, as on March 28, 1660, before Charles II. was proclaimed, " a
gentleman was brought as a prisoner, because he called out of a vessel that he
went in, Vive le Roy" We have even " God save the King " sung to the tune
of Vive le Roy, on Charles the Second's restoration. The following is the
chorus : " Come, let us sing, boys, God save the King, boys,
Drink a good health, and sing Vive le Roy"
Finally, D'Urfey wrote a "Vive le Roy" for George I. See Pills to purge
Melancholy, i. 116, 1719.
It is certainly a singular fact, that there should be an air of the peculiar metre
of " God save the King" in Dr. Bull's manuscript; but there is really nothing
to identify it with the words. On the contrary, the very fact of a " God
save the King " being in the same book, and that an imitation of the popular
cry, rather than a tune, tends to disprove the connection.
A passage in Lord Macaulay's History of England, on the battle of La Hogue,
700 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
might give the impression, that " God save the King " was a national song in
1692. " The victorious flotilla slowly retired, insulting the hostile camp with a
thundering chant of 'God save the King'" (iv. 240, 1855). I am enabled,
through his lordship's kindness, to give the original words, from Foucault's report
to the French Minister of Marine, in M. Capefigue's Louis XIV., cap. xxxix. :
" Us eurent 1'audace d'avancer dans une espece de havre, ou il y avoit vingt batimens
marchands, deux frigates le"geres, un yacht, et un grand nombre de chaloupes, tons
echoues pres de terre, et brulerent huit vaisseaux marchands : ensuite ils entrerent
dans plusieurs batimens, qu'ils enrent la liberte" et le loisir d'appareiller et d'emmener
avec eux, en criant God save the King. Sans la mer qui se retiroit, ils auroient brule*
on enleve" le reste."
This, therefore, like all the rest, is the shout of " God save the King," and not
the song or hymn.
Were I to sum up the case from the evidence before us, I should say :
That the first four theories may at once be discarded.
That there is an air very like " God save the King" in a manuscript of Dr.
Bull's compositions, dated 1619, but no tittle of evidence to connect the words
with that period.
Now, as to their having been written for James II. :
Benjamin Victor asserts that " the very words and music " are an old anthem
that was " sung at St. James's Chapel, for King James II., when the Prince of
Orange was landed." Arne does not say ' anthem," but " for the Catholic
Chapel of James II." If sung at the Roman Catholic Chapel, the words would
have been in Latin. Quere, was there any Protestant Chapel at St. James's in
1688 ? The words have never yet been found in any collection of the words of
anthems, whether in print or manuscript, and although custom sanctions our
applying the title of " national anthem " to Crod save the King, it is not, strictly
speaking, an anthem, but a song or hymn. No musician of the reign of
James II. (or even of George II.) would have entitled such a composition an
anthem ; neither could Dr. Bull have intended that for sacred music which he
arranges as an air in one part of his manuscript, and as a dance-tune in another.
The words of anthems are taken from the bible, or from some authorized
form of prayer, and are never in rhyme.
This is not the only seeming inaccuracy in Victor's statement. He says,
" Twenty men appear at the end of every play, and one, stepping forward from
the rest, begins singing ; " whereas, according to Dr. Arne's score, a each part
was first sung as duet, and then repeated in chorus. The printed copies of the
time are all for two voices.
The words of " God save the King " were inapplicable to the period of the
accession of James II., because he had then no enemies to scatter; and, when he
landed in Ireland (after his flight from England), he, to please the native Irish,
adopted an Irish air as his March, b while the native " pipers and harpers played,
Dr. Arne's manuscript score of " God save the King " ten by Thomas Duffett, and printed in his New Poems,
is in the possession of Mr. Oliphant. It is for male Songs, &c., 8vo., 1676. It is the air to which Allan
voices only, accompanied by horns, violins, tenors and Ramsay wrote the song of " Farewell to Lochaber," or
basses. " Lochaber no more," and which had been known in Scot-
b This air was known in England, from the reign of land before Ramsay's publication, as "King James's
Charles II. down to 1730, as " Since Celia's my foe." It March to Ireland," or " King James's March to Dublin."
derived that name from a " song to the Irish tune " writ-
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II. 701
' The King shall enjoy his own again.' ' : (Macaulay's History of England, iii.
175, 1855.
There are several witnesses to the fact of the words having been sung
" God save great James, our King," but as neither Victor, Arne, Burney, nor
Benjamin Cooke (the three last being the persons who heard it sung " God save
great James") were born even in the lifetime of James II., this James could
have been no other than the Pretender, his son, whom the Jacobites entitled
" James III." James II. died in 1701, " James III." on the 30th of Decem-
ber, 1765. It is impossible to suppose that any persons would sing " long
life" to a dead king. These Jacobite parodies - were very common; I have
already quoted three on Rule, Britannia, and subjoined is one on " God save the
King ; " but no parody on the latter would be so easy or so natural as the mere
substitution of James for George.
The last claim to be analyzed is that of Henry Carey.
It is needless to quote any of the second-hand testimony in his favour, since
we have the direct evidence of a witness who was living at the time the enquiry
was instituted.
John Christopher Smith had been intimately acquainted with Carey, when a
young man. He composed the music to Carey's Teraminta, which had great
success, and passed through four editions. It was first published in 1732.
Smith asserts that Carey wrote the words and composed the music of " God save
the King," and took the manuscript to him to correct the base. At the first
glance it seems improbable that Carey should have required such assistance, but
in the preface to his Musical Century, vol. ii., dated Jan. 23, 1740, Carey says,
a I had some thoughts of giving the reader a detail of this work . . . what basses
I have added ; what amended" &c. This was his last musical publication, and
the admission removes the only reasonable doubt upon Smith's testimony. In
the postcript to the letter which Smith dictated, Dr. Harington says, " Mr. Smith
understood your father intended this air as part of a birthday ode." Carey
seems to have had something of the kind in his mind, when he printed " A new
year's Ode for 1736-7, compos'd in a dream, the author imagining himself to
be Poet Laureate," an appointment he would, no doubt, have been delighted
to hold.
Carey gives evidence, throughout his works, of having been a thoroughly loyal
man, and a strong adherent to the Protestant succession. His dreaming ode ends
thus : " King George he was born in the month of October,
'Tis a sin for a subject that month to be sober."
His first poem, in his first book of poems, 1713, is "An Ode presented to her
Majesty on her Birthday," beginning
" Darling of Heav'n, and glory of the earth,
Illustrious Anna, whose auspicious birth."
In the third edition of his poems, 1729, when George II. was on the throne, we
have an " Ode on their Majesties' succession," ending
" God send No end To line Divine
Of George and Caroline ; "
702 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
In his " Wish/' he recommends Whigs and Tories to agree ; and, if they will
follow his advice, " Then shall we see a glorious scene,
And so, God save the King and Queen."
and, among his works, there are other songs of the same class, besides an entire
Musical Entertainment " on the happy nuptials of the Princess Royal of England
with the Prince of Orange," performed at the theatre in Goodman's Fields, in
1734.
Much error and mis-statement has been mixed up with the enquiry into the
history of " God save the King," not only as regards Carey, but nearly every-
thing else connected with it.
Carey is said to have been a Jacobite. This was a guess which his works
utterly disprove. He is said to have been the natural son of George Savile,
Marquis of Halifax. Henry Carey certainly named one of his sons " Savile,"
but the Marquis died in 1695, and Carey speaks of his " parents " as living in
1713. Probably his mother then kept a school, as we find in the edition of his
poems printed in that year, " A Pastoral Eclogue on the Divine Power of God,
spoken by two young ladies, in the habits of shepherdesses, at an entertainment
performed at Mrs. Carey's school, by several of her scholars." Carey is said to
have " put a period to a life which had been led without reproach," when at the
advanced age of eighty, by suicide. I do not deny the suicide, since it is
stated by Hawkins, who is a good authority for fact, although he wrote thirty
years later. Hawkins may have had the means of knowing; but it is not
so stated in the newspapers of the time. For instance, in The Daily Post,
5th Oct., 1743, " Yesterday morning, Mr. H. Carey, well known to the musical
world for his droll compositions, got out of bed from his wife, in perfect health,
and was soon after found dead. He has left six children behind him." On the
17th Nov., of the same year, the performances at Drury Lane were for the
benefit of the widow and four small children of the late H. Carey. If any
further proof of his age, -than the four small children, be necessary, it will be
found in the prefaces to his Poems on several Occasions, which are rather three
distinct books than three editions of the same. In that of 1713, he hopes the
reader will conceive no prejudice against him on account of his age (i.e., youth),
and that critics will not, " by unlimited detraction, obstruct the hopes of his
parents and the end of his education." The songs in this collection were either
written to old tunes, or set to music by other composers ; but in the next edition,
that of 1720, he particularizes eleven songs as having music composed by him-
self. The verses are there again entitled " the offsprings of his youthful genius."
In the third edition, 1729, he addresses Geminiani and Roseingrave as his
instructors in music. Geminiani arrived in London in 1714 ; Roseingrave com-
menced teaching in London after 1720. If Carey was eighty years of age at the
time of his death, he must have been taking lessons at sixty. These are speci-
mens of the difficulties to be encountered by those who are content to take
evidence at second-hand.
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II. 703
Objections may be taken to Carey's claim, because " God save the King " was
published anonymously. I do not attach any importance to that fact, because
I have before me several others of his songs so printed. The copies were, in all
probability, obtained surreptitiously. He complains of this piracy in the preface
to the first volume of The Musical Century, 1737, and states his losses on that
account to have averaged nearly 300/. a year. I do not understand why he
could not have repressed such piracy, under the act of Queen Anne; but he was
evidently not aware that he possessed the power, since he prays the legislature
to ~3ass a bill, then pending, for the protection of authors, such as was already
enjoyed by engravers.
Carey's last musical publication bears date Jan., 1740, and that is the year in
which he is stated to have sung " God save the King " at a tavern in Cornhill.
The celebration of Admiral Vernon's victory was certainly an appropriate time
for its production.
Carey died in October, 1743, and " God save the King " first became ex-
temdvely popular in October, 1745. It was the rebellion of that year that called
for tli such repeated expressions of loyalty, and caused so much enthusiasm when
the song was sung at all the theatres.
" God save the King" consists of six bars in the first part, and eight in the
second. The rhythm is peculiar, but not defective, since all the phrases consist
of two bars. No composer of the time seems so likely to have used this rhythm
as Carey. Several of his songs contain six bars in the first part, and some have
moro than six in the second. A glance at his Musical Century, and other songs,
will shew this.
If Carey wrote both words and music of " God save the King," without
haviag seen Dr. Bull's " ayre," he, in all probability, had in mind the song of
Vive le Roy (ante p. 430). The music begins in the same way, and we know by
D'Urfey's song that Vive le Roy was in use, or at least remembered, in the reign
of George I. I have not seen any old German copies, but in the modern, such
as, i; 157 Alte und neue Studenten, Soldaten, und Volks-Lieder," Leipzig,
1847, the composition is attributed to H. Carey.
I now leave the verdict as to the authorship in the hands of my readers.
There will, no doubt, be differences of opinion among them. Some will be for
Dr. Bull ; others will say that the only four bars in Bull's " ayre " which are
identical with "God save King" are a common passage; and will instance the
four bars in the Christmas Carol, which is older than Bull's tune, as nearly the
same. (The reader may compare the second part of the carol at p. 374, with the
second part of Bull's " ayre. ") These will argue the coincidence to be
accidental.
Wi thout speculating further upon opinions, I will now place before my readers
a printed copy of earlier date than any yet known. In this copy neither George
nor James is mentioned. It is applicable to any king, but was printed in the
reign of George II. It consists of but two stanzas instead of three.
704
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
God save our Lord the King, Long live our no - ble King, God save the King.
Send him vie - to - ri-ous, Happy and glo - ri-ous, Long to reign o-ver us, God save the King.
Confound their politicks,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On him our hopes are fix'd,
all.'
O Lord our God, arise,
Scatter his enemies,
And make them fall :
O save us
The above is taken from p. 22, of " Harmonia Anglicana ; A Collection of
two, three, and four-part songs ; several of them never before printed. To
which are added some Choice Dialogues, set to music by the most eminent
masters, viz., Dr. Blow, H. Purcell, Handel, Dr. Green, Dl. Purcell, Eccles,
Weldon, Leveridge, Lampe, Carey, &c. The whole re vis' d, carefully corrected,
and figur'd by a judicious master. London, Printed for, and sold by John
Simpson, at the Bass Viol and Flute in Sweeting's Alley, opposite the East
Door of the Royal Exchange."
The copy of " God save the King " in The Gentleman's Magazine for October,
1745, has hitherto been referred to, as the earliest printed authority. That ver-
sion consists of the three stanzas which are still usually sung, and commences
" God save great George our King." There are two wrong notes in the fourth
bar of the melody in that copy, viz., B and C, which should be A and B. The
base proves these to be typographical errors, and not intentional alterations of
the tune. In the table of contents of The Gentleman's Magazine the older title
of " God save our Lord the King" is retained, agreeing with the copy now pro-
duced; and when the Harmonia Anglicana was extended to two volumes, and the
name changed to Thesaurus Musicus, although the song was then printed as
" God save great G-eorge our King," the index remained unaltered " God save
our Lord the King." In Harmonia Anglicana the only heading is, " For two
voices." In Thesaurus Musicus, it is "A Loyal Song, sung at the Theatres
Royal, for two voices." There is not a word about " anthem " in either copy,
nor does the original publication contain any other than secular music. In the
Gentleman's Magazine, it is " A Song for two voices, sung at both play-houses."
The Harmonia Anglicana is printed without date, but a clue to the time of
publication is obtained in the following way. There are several works adver-
tised by the publisher on the title page, and three or four more seem to have
been added subsequently to fill up vacant space on the index plate. The last
of these are " Two collections of favourite Scotch tunes, set for a violin,
German flute, or harpsichord, by Mr. Oswald." These two collections were
advertised in November, 1742.
I cannot understand how the above copy of " God save the King" can have
escaped Dr. Burney's notice, if he took any trouble in the matter. Perhaps he
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
705
" Lord, grant that Marshal Wade,
May, by Thy mighty aid,
Victory bring I
contented himself with a few superficial enquiries, and took his text from Victor's
Letters, which were published before he gave his account.
Now, as to the words. The copies " sung at the Theatres "contain the three
stanzas still usually sung, but during the progress of the rebellion a fourth was
added
May he sedition hush
And like a torrent rush,
Rebellious Scots to crush,
God, save the King ! "
In the December number of the G-entlemarfs Magazine, for the same year, is
"An attempt to improve the song * God save the King/ the former words
haying no merit but their loyalty." This commences, " Fame, let the trumpet
sound," but the alteration was not adopted. Many similar attempts were subse-
quently made without better success. A copy of " God save the King" rendered
into Latin, will be found in The Gentleman's Magazine for 1795.
On the 15th of May, 1800, George III. having been shot at by James Hatfield,
at Drury Lane Theatre, the following stanza (said to have been written on the
spot, by the Right Hon. R. B. Sheridan) was sung by Mr. Kelly, at the end of
the farce, and encored with enthusiasm :
" From every latent foe,
From the assassin's blow,
God, save the King !
O'er him thine arm extend,
For Britain's sake, defend
Our father, prince, and friend,
God, save the King ! "
The following Jacobite parody is contained in The True Loyalist, or Chevalier's
Favourite, 1779. It is also entitled " God save the King : "
Britons, who dare to claim
That great and glorious name,
Rouse at the call !
See British honour fled,
Corruption's influence spread,
Slavery rear its head,
And freedom fall.
Church, King, and liberty,
Honour and property,
All are betrayed :
Foreigners rule the land,
Our blood and wealth command,
Obstruct with lawless hand
Justice and truth.
Khali a usurper reign,
And Britons hug the chain?
That we'll deny :
Then let us all unite
For church, king, and law we'll fight
To retrieve James's right,
Conquer or die.
Join in the just defence
Of James, our lawful prince
And native King ;
Then shall true greatness shine,
Justice and mercy join,
Restor'd by Stuart's line,
Virtue's great spring.
Down with Dutch politics,
Whigs and their fanatics,
The old Rump's cause.
Recall your injured prince,
Drive Hanoverians hence,
Such as rule here against
All British laws.
Borne on the wings of Fame
James's heroic name
All his foes dread.
He, from his father's throne
Pulls usurpation down,
Glorious success shall crown
His sacred head."
Now as to the tune. The alterations in the first and fourth bars of the
melody were made within a short time of its having been sung at the theatres.
Th<> A, in the first bar (instead of a third G) , is even to be found in Dr. Arne's score.
A change of later years, is, however, greatly to be deprecated. When the
anticipation of the key-note at the termination of a tune grew out of fashion, the
end of " God save the King " was changed to
This
706
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
alteration is tame and trivial, and quite out of character with the rest of the
air ; indeed, it is so much felt to be out of character, that, in order to avoid it,
singers have been in the habit of making a long holding-note upon the word
" us," and a run, or triplet, upon " God." Such changes, however, have only
tended from bad to worse.
Believing that all musical readers will agree with me that these alterations
ought to be rejected, the tune is here printed with the old and correct termination.
They who prefer it as now commonly printed, can play the above notes to the
same base.
r
God save our no - ble Queen! Long live our gracious Queen ! God save the
Queen !
God save our no - ble Queen ! Long live our no - ble Queen ! God save the
Queen! Send her vie - to - ri-ous, hap-py and glo - ri-ous, Long to reign
o - ver us, God save the Queen!
nd her vie - to - ri-ous, Hap-py and
^fe^i
glo - ri - ous, Long to reign o - ver us, God save the Queen
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
707
O Lord our God, arise,
Scatter her enemies,
And make them fall.
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On Thee our hopes we fix,
God save us all.
Thy choicest gifts in store,
On her be pleased to pour,
Long may she reign.
May she defend our laws,
And ever give us cause
To sing, with heart and voice,
God save the Queen.
DRINK TO ME ONLY WITH THINE EYES.
All attempts to discover the author of this simple and beautiful air have
hitherto proved unavailing, and, in all probability, will now remain so. Among
those who essayed was Dr. Burney. The poetry is by Ben Jonson.
Slowly and smoothly.
Drink to me on - ly with thine eyes, And
will pledge with
ifil
mine; . . Or leave a kiss but in the cup, And I'll not ask for wine.
The thirst that from the soul doth rise, Doth ask a drink di - vine;
But might I of Jove's nee - tar sup,
would not change for thine.
I sent thee, late, a rosy wreath,
Not so much honouring thee,
As giving it a hope, that there
It could not withered be ;
But thou thereon didst only breathe,
And sent'st it back to me ;
Since when, it grows and smells, I swear,
Not of itself, but thee.
2 Y
708 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
THE GIRL I LEFT BEHIND ME
This air is contained in a manuscript in the possession of Dr. Rimbault, of
date about 1770, and in several manuscript collections of military music of the
latter half of the last century. It is a march, and is either entitled The girl
I left behind me, or Brighton Camp.
One of the lines in the song " The girl I left behind me," is, " But now Fin
bound to Brighton Camp," and this gives a clue to the date of the words.
Although there were encampments along the coast between 1691 and 1693,
before the victory of La Hogue, I do not attribute the song to so early a date,
because I find no traces of words or music in the numerous publications in the
first half of the eighteenth century ; but in 1758 and 9 there were also encamp-
ments, whilst Admirals Hawke and Rodney were watching the French fleet in
Brest harbour. The French had prepared " flat-bottomed boats " for the landing
of troops. In 1759 all danger of a descent upon our coast was averted by
Admiral Boscawen's victory over one French fleet, and Admiral Hawke's over
another. These and other successes of the year were chronicled in a song
entitled " The year fifty-nine." In that year, also, a farce was printed, entitled
The Invasion, to ridicule the unnecessary apprehensions which some persons had
entertained of a nocturnal descent upon our coast by means of the flat-bottomed
boats, and Garrick produced a pantomime, entitled Harlequin's Invasion, with the
same object.
It appears, therefore, that the song of The girl I left behind me may be
dated, with great probability, in 1758.
In 1795 a song was written, entitled " Blyth Camps, or The Girl I left behind
me." It was printed in Bell's Rhymes of the Northern Bards, 8vo., Newcastle-
upon-Tyne, 1812. It is a lame alteration of "Brighton Camp," commencing
thus : " I'm lonesome since I left Blyth camps,
And o'er the moor that's sedgy,
With heavy thoughts my mind is filled,
Since I parted with my Betsy"
About 1790, when the celebrated John Philip Kemble became manager of
Drury Lane Theatre (and subsequently of Co vent Garden), he introduced this
air as the Morris-dance for village festivities on the stage, and as the march for
processions. It has since been constantly applied to the same purposes.
It has also been played for at least seventy years, as a Loth-to- depart when a
man-of-war weighs anchor, and when a regiment quits the town in which it has
been quartered. The custom has become so universal, that any omission to
perform it would now be regarded as a slight upon the ladies of the place.
" The girl I left behind me" is included in two collections of Irish music in
Moore's Irish Melodies, and in Bunting's last collection, 4to., 1840. Each editor
gives a different termination to the first and second parts of the tune, and these
variations are quite necessary to establish an Irish origin. The question is of
priority.
All the evidence I have been able to collect is against the authenticity of
Moore's version. Among Irish musical authorities I enquired of the late
Edward Bunting, J. A. Wade, J. C. Clifton, and Tom Cooke ; among English,
of Dr. Crotch, W. Ayrton, and of several band-masters. All were well
acquainted with the tune, but no one had heard it as printed by Moore be-
fore the publication of his Melodies. I have also the best means of knowing that
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II. 709
Moore was in the habit of making alterations in the airs. In the year 1825, my
father was engaged as arbiter between the late John Power, Moore's publisher,
and the late Robert Purdie, of Edinburgh. Purdie had published a work entitled
The Irish Minstrel, the editor of which had taken some of the melodies from
Moore's collection, believing those versions to be genuine. Power resisted this,
as an infringement of his copyright, and proved that so many of the airs had been
altered by Moore, that Purdie chose rather to suppress his entire work than to
make such numerous alterations as would have been required. " The girl I left
behind me" was not one of the airs in dispute, because it was so universally
known, that Purdie's editor had no occasion to copy from Moore. The termi-
nations in Purdie's Irish Minstrel agree with my copy, and are those which
I argue to be correct.
With Bunting the case is different. I cannot suppose that he would alter any
lir, and he is undoubtedly a great authority upon Irish music. If Bunting's
version can be shewn to be older than the English copy, I readily give up
the point.
The case stands thus. Bunting prints it as " procured from A. O'Neil, harper,
A.D. 1800 author and date unknown." It is singular that, having it from
a harper in 1800, Bunting did not include so very popular an air in his second
General Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland, printed in 1811. Did he
r ,hink it decidedly Irish at that time ? If not, the omission is accountable.
Bunting informed me that he had not heard it played by any of the harpers
at the Congress in 1792, when they were assembled at Belfast, from every part
of Ireland, and liberal premiums were distributed among them. If the air had
"hen been known for thirty years in Ireland, as it was in England, surely such
would not have been the case.
In a letter addressed to me by Bunting, and now before me (dated 24th
January, 1840), he says of this air, " It is a pretty tune, and has been played
for the last fifty years, to my knowledge, by the fifes and drums, and bands of the
different regiments, on their leaving the towns for new quarters." Thus Bunting's
own memory carries it back in Ireland as a military air to a period ten years
before he received his copy from a harper. Surely the harper may also have
heard one of the bands. His arrangement is a florid one, not the simple air, and
no band ever yet played it with those Irish terminations.
Finally, this harper's copy cannot have been generally known, not even to
Moore, or he would certainly have adopted the alteration instead of his own very
inferior one. The harper's terminations would also have answered equally well
for the march.
Moore and Bunting both adopt the English name, " The girl I left behind
iae." The words relate to England, and to England only. It does not com-
mence, " I'm lonesome since I cross'd the sea."
If it be necessary to prove that Irish harpers occasionally play airs that are
not Irish, I have abundant proof at hand; but cannot suppose that any one
conversant with the subject will dispute it.
My readers have now the facts before them, and can draw their own conclu-
sions. I care not which way they decide. These enquiries should be conducted
in the calm spirit of research after truth, and not as contentions of nationality.
710 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
Gracefully.
m
s
f=a-j-nN^
lonesome since I cross'd the hill, And o'er the moor and
val - ley, Such hea - vy thoughts my heart do fill, Since parting with my
3
m
1
Sal - ly. I seek no more the fine or gay, For each does but re
-mind me How swift thehoursdid pass a -way, With the girl I've left be - hind me.
J jiJ ^
r f ij J J N
f- 1 ^-
Her golden hair, in ringlets fair,
Her eyes like diamonds shining,
Her slender waist, with carriage chaste,
May leave the swan repining.
Ye gods above ! oh, hear my prayer,
To my beauteous fair to bind me,
And send me safely back again
To the girl I've left behind me.
The bee shall honey taste no more,
The dove become a ranger,
The falling waves shall cease to roar,
Ere I shall seek to change her.
The vows we register'd above
Shall ever cheer and bind me,
In constancy to her I love,
The girl I've left behind me.
Oh, ne'er shall I forget the night,
The stars were bright above me,
And gently lent their silv'ry light,
When first she vow'd to love me.
But now I'm bound to Brighton camp,
Kind Heaven, then, pray guide me,
And send me safely back again
To the girl I've left behind me.
Had I the art to sing her praise
With all the skill of Homer,
One only theme should fill my lays
The charms of my true lover.
So, let the night be e'er so dark,
Or e'er so wet and windy,
Kind Heaven send me back again
To the girl I've left behind me.
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
711
My mind her form shall still retain,
In sleeping or in waking,
Until I see my love again,
For whom my heart is breaking.
If ever I return that way,
And she should not decline me,
I evermore will live and stay
With the girl I've left behind me.
THE ROGUES' MARCH.
Why so graceful and pastoral a melody as this should have been condemned to
be the " Cantio in exitu " of deserters and reprobates who are to be drummed out
of regiments, is not easily to be accounted for ; but such is the case, and has been
for more than a century possibly much longer.
In another form, this tune has been long in use for cheerful songs. See p. 720.
Quick March.
^-^-H-^-^}j-^tl^
WITH JOCKEY TO THE FAIR.
There are many extant copies of this song without dates, and it is printed in
Vocal Music, or The Songster's Companion, iii. 26, 2nd edit., 1772.
It was originally a song for the public gardens, and has been somewhat sim-
plified by popular use. The tune, in this instance, has been rather improved than
deteriorated by the change.
Not having space for two versions, it is here presented to the reader in its
popular form. The following are the original words :
712 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
Cheerfully.
fc
'Twas on the morn of sweet May-day, When Na - ture paint - ed
3 -
r^
=?
all things gay ; Taught birds to sing and lambs to play, And deck'd the meadows fair :
m
^ h i r , ^
n w r i k , , . , --^
*
' *
|
\ 1 1
* " -p
- ! anr f
J
J J
J J
J J
J
I g
J
* J * J *
1
v ? v
Young Joe-key, ear - ly in
A . J^
the morn, A
- rose and tripp'd it
A ^ . ^
o'er the lawn ; His
J^^J
C3i
K
fa iB 1
a
i
'! 1
1
.. , r i
.
i. , i ._J_.. .
^
i
f r "
Jen-n had vow'd
I
Sun - day coat the youth put on, For Jen-ny
rrr J=
V Jf /P
way to run With Joe - key, to
t
the Fair, . . For Jen- ny had vow'd a -
i
i
to run Wi
- way to run With Joe - key, to the Fair
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II. 713
The cheerful parish bells had rung; " Behold the ring," the shepherd cried;
With eager steps he trudg'd along; " Will Jenny be my charming bride ?
Sweet flow'ry garlands round him hung, Let Cupid be our happy guide,
Which shepherds us'd to wear : And Hymen meet us there ! "
He tapp'd the window " Haste, my dear," Then Jockey did his vows renew;
Jenny, impatient, cried, "Who's there? " He would be constant, would be true;
" Tis I, my love, and no one near ; His word was pledg'd away she flew,
Step gently down, you've naught to fear With cowslips sparkling with the dew,
With Jockey, to the fair. With Jockey to the fair.
Step gently," &c. With cowslips, &c.
" My dad and mammy're fast asleep, Soon did they meet a joyful throng,
My brother's up, and with the sheep ; Their gay companions, blithe and young,
And will you still your promise keep, Each joins the dance, each joins the song,
Which I have heard you swear ? To hail the happy pair.
And will you ever constant prove ? " What two were e'er so fond as they?
" I will, by all the pow'rs above, All bless the kind, propitious day,
And ne'er deceive my charming dove : The smiling morn and blooming May,
Dispel these doubts, and haste, my love, When lovely Jenny ran away
With Jockey to the fair. With Jockey to the fair.
Dispel these doubts," &c. When lovely Jenny, &c.
The following song was recently written for me to the above air, by Charles
Mackay :
'When swallows dart from cottage eaves, We've room for all, whoe'er they be,
And farmers dream of barley sheaves ; Who have a heart for harmless glee,
When apples peep amid the leaves, And in the shadow of our tree
And woodbines scent the way, Can fling their pride away.
We love to fly from daily care, So, join our sport, ye maidens true,
To breathe the buxom country air, With eyes of beaming black or blue ;
To join our hands and form a ring, Come youth, come age, come childhood fair,
To laugh and sport, to dance and sing, We've welcome kind, and room to spare,
Amid the new-mown hay. Amid the new-mown hay.
To laugh, &c. We've welcome," &c.
THE GOLDEN DAYS OF GOOD QUEEN BESS.
The earliest form in which I have found this tune is as " No more, fair virgins,
boast your power," introduced in Love in a riddle, in 1729. It has three other
names, " The golden days of good Queen Bess," " Ally Croaker," and " Unfortu-
nate Miss Bailey."
" The golden days of good Queen Bess" was written by Collins, and not im-
probably for one of the celebrations of Queen Elizabeth's birthday, which were so
n uch in vogue, as anti-jacobite demonstrations, during the last century (see
p 568 and note). The words consist of eleven stanzas, and commence thus :
" To my muse give attention, and deem it not a mystery,
If we jumble together music, poetry, and history ;
The times to display in the days of Queen Bess, Sir,
Whose name and whose memory posterity may bless, Sir.
the golden days of good Queen Bess,
Merry be the memory of good Queen Bess."
In Bell's Rhymes of Northern Bards, Newcastle, 1812, is " Barber's News, or
Shields in an uproar," to the tune of the golden days of good Queen Bess.
" Ally Croaker " is a song by Foote, in his comedy, The Englishman in Paris,
714
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
1753, and was sung by Miss Macklin, to the guitar. It was printed, with the
tune, in Apollo's Cabinet, or The Lady's Delight, ii. 218 (Liverpool, 1757), and
the tune, under that name, in Thompson's Country Dances, i. 41. The song
commences thus : "There lived a man in Ballymecrazy,
Who wanted a wife to make him unaisy,
Long had he sighed for dear Ally Croaker,
And thus the gentle youth bespoke her :
Arrah, will you marry me, dear Ally Croaker ?
Arrah, will you marry me, dear Ally Croaker ? "
" Unfortunate Miss Bailey" was written to the tune by George Colman, and
has been much sung to it during the last fifty years.
Cheerfully. ^^^ .
A Cap -tain bold, in Hal-i-fax,Thatdwelt in coun-try quar - ters, De -
-ceiv'd a maid, who hang'd her - self, One morning, in her gar - ters ; His
wick -ed conscience smit -ed him ; He lost his stomach dai - ly ; He took to drinking
-8- -51- , -a- -i 1
ra - ta - fia, And thought up- on Miss Bai - ley. Oh, Miss Bai - ley, un -
m
- for-tunate Miss Bai - ley ! Oh ! Miss Bai - ley
, un - for -
tu-nate Miss Bai - ley !
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
715
LOVELY NANCY.
This is one of the airs contained in the folio edition of The Jovial Crew (which
has the basses to the airs), but not in the octavo. It was added after the first
pc rformance. The following words were sung by the female beggars, in the opera :
Rather slowly, and with expression.
' -C
Can nothing, Sir, . . move you, Our sor - rows to mend, Have you
You see the sad . . fate We poor maid - ens en - dure, Can- not
1
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>-^-^
H~~3~i i r~?n
i ir ^ i
-i J i^H t J J
no - thing to give, Sir, Have you
char - i - ty move you To
CS f
no - thing to
grant us a
_s ff
lend? . My
cure?" How
5^
.
H p 1
8 r ": P'*J*
r
S| P JB
-e L
* * 1 _S
1- '
i L^ 1 ^*~
heart does
hard is
so
your
heave, I'm a - fraid it
heart, How un - kind is
will
your
break, Of
eye, If
1 ^
f*3
-
Tl
ii^ 1
4 : r j
n
-
73
t
vie - tuals we've scarce had A ... mor - sel this
week.
no - thing can move you, Good Sir, to com
- ply-
-Sr -jP-
| ' l~\
rf ' n
S 1
c^
Tl
\ \-
4 4
.,_ .
HEART OF OAK.
The words of this still popular song are by David Garrick, and it was sung by
Mr. Champnes in Harlequin's Invasion, in 1759. The tune is by Mr. (afterwards
Dr.) Boyce.
Many songs have been written to the air, and, among them, two in the Burney
Collection. The first, " Keppel's Triumph," commencing
" Bear a hand, jolly tars, for bold Keppel appear,
In spite of each charge from Sir Hugh Palliser :"
716
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
the second, " The hardy tars of old England ; or, The true Hearts of Oak,"
beginning " Come, cheer up, my lads, let us haste to the main,
And rub out old scores with the dollars of Spain."
_
Come, cheer up, my lads, 'tis to
1 r 3"1 : i '
glo - ry we steer, To
'-p m ?
r^f E
1 fc-
ft ^ i h
r- kd* r
-J -. J
"N
r^ i + -+
-
add something more to this won - der-ful year ; To ho - nor we call you, as
m
m-
free men, not slaves, For who ere so free as the sons of the waves ?
4-
t=
S
*T* F
4-^U-ptk^^
3=t Si flJ PfezJ 44i
Heart of oak are our ships, Heart of oak are our men : We al-ways are rea-dy.
P
Steady, boys, stea-dy, We'll fight and we'll con-quer a -gain and a-gain.
?-
We ne'er see our foes but we wish them to stay ; They swear they'll invade us, these terrible
They never see us but they wish us away : foes ; [beaus ;
If they run, why, we follow, and run them They frighten our women, our children, and
ashore, But, should their flat bottoms in darkness get
For, if they won't fight us, we cannot do more. o'er, [shore.
Heart of oak &c. ^^ Britons they'll find to receive them on
Heart of oak, &c.
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
717
We'll still make them fear, and we'll still We'll still make 'em run, and we'll still make
make them flee, [at sea : 'em sweat,
And drub 'em on shore, as we've drubb'd 'em In spite of the devil, and Brussels Gazette :
Then cheer up, my lads, with one heart let us Then cheer up, my lads, with one heart let us
sing, [king. sing, [king.
Ou." soldiers, our sailors, our statesmen, our Our soldiers, our sailors, our statesmen and
Heart of oak, &c. Heart of oak, &c.
FAIR ROSALIND.
This song is contained in Mercurius Musicus, 1735 ; in Watts' Musical Mis-
cellany, ii. 176, 1729 ; in The Convivial Songster, 1780 ; &c.
In the Musical Miscellany it is entitled The Jilt.
^Cheerfully.
i -*~F F"
H 4-^ n-
Hf
$J
Fair Ro
=^=d
- sa-lind in
I ^T^=* i-
wo -ful wise Six hearts has bound in
F* .,-, |U_
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thrall:
-f Hf
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h-*
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J L_5 f
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As yet she un -
1_ ^
de ter
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min'd lies, Which she her
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spouse shall
r* *
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,
1
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3 J
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call, .
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. . Which
1 1
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she her spouse
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shall
1
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call.
-^ ' J :
v
LT J. J
~J
Wretched, and only wretched, he,
To whom that lot shall fall ;
For, if her heart aright I see,
She means to please them all.
THE BARKING BARBER.
This tune is to be found in two or three different forms, the variations having
been caused by the different metres that have been adapted to it. For instance,
one of the songs is Date obolum Belisario, which has twelve syllables in the first
lino : " Fortune ! how strangely thy gifts are awarded."
Another is the comic song of Guy Fawkes, which, having sixteen syllables,
requires fifteen notes in the first two bars of music :
" I sing a doleful tragedy, Guy Fawkes that prince of sinisters."
So also with the burdens one is "Date obolum Belisario," and another is
" Bow, wow, wow."
718
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
Two versions of the tune were printed in National English Airs. The following
is the older.
Having lost the transcript of the words of " The Barking Barber," the first
four lines of " Date obolum " are printed with the tune.
Moderate time.
O Fortune, how strangely thy gifts are a - ward -ed, How much to thy shame thy ca
-priceis re-cord-ed; The wise, great, and good of thy frowns seldom 'scape a-ny,BraveBeli- sa - rius
begg'dfor a ha' - pen-ny. [Bow, wow, wow, Fol de rol de rid-dle lid-die, bow, wow, wow.]
r r r
NANCY DAWSON.
Nancy Dawson, from whom this tune is named, was a celebrated dancer in the
reign of George II. One of her portraits is at the Garrick Club ; and there are
four different prints of her, one of which, by Spooner, is in Dr. Burney's Collec-
tion of Theatrical Portraits in the British Museum. Another is by G. Pulley
(folio) , dancing a hornpipe, with the song ; and a third by Watson. Her life was
published in 1760 ; and Stevens's Dramatic History of Master Edward, Miss
Ann, and others, " the extraordinaries of these times," was " a satire upon
Edward Shuter, the comedian, and Nancy Dawson, the far-famed toast." From
this work it appears that she first appeared, as a dancer, at Sadler's Wells ;
and as " she was extremely agreeable in her figure, and the novelty of her dancing
added to it, with her excellence in her execution, she soon grew to be a favorite
with the town ; and at the ensuing season was engaged at Covent Garden play-
house. She became vastly celebrated, admired, imitated, and followed by every-
body." Her death took place at Hampstead on 27th May, 1767, and she was
buried in the Chapel of St. George the Martyr, Queen Square, Bloomsbury,
where there is a tombstone to her memory, with the laconic inscription, " Here
lies Nancy Dawson." She had many good qualities, and among others was very
charitable.
KEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
719
The tune became very popular from her dancing. It was printed in many
collections as a country-dance ; was arranged with variations for the harpsichord,
as Miss Dawson' s Hornpipe; was introduced in Love in a Village (1762), as^the
housemaid's song ; and is still sung in children's games as " Here we, go round the
mulberry-bush."
I have already spoken of English country-dances having been fashionable in
France, and have now before me one of the printed collections of those
dances, in which Nancy Dawson is included, as the " sixieme Anglaise de la
Reine." It is the " 5 eme * Recueil d' Anglaises, arrangees avec leurs Traits, telle
quel se danse che la Reine. Mis au jour par M. Landrin, M tre * de Danse, et
Compositeur des traits des Contre-Danse. Prix 18s. le recueil. A Paris, chez
Landrin M d * de Musique et M tre< de Danse, Riie des Boucheries St. Germains,
proche le petit Marche, et chez M lle - Castagnery, Riie des Prouvairs, et aux
addresses ordinaires." 8vo., n.d.
The words are printed in The Bullfinch and other collections of songs, as well
as under one of the engraved portraits.
P-
33
i J j> i j* |
^ r J J^~
j
Of
"i ^
all the
_g| =
girls in
-J
our
: , =
town, The
-i = s
black, the fair, the
1 1
-F
|_ f
r~r c
~t J
--
r
===^=4==i=
4- J -^-^
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red, tl
__gi j I J .
ie brown, That dance and prance it
i *i >* i
1 L- ^ S gfr- 4
ft^
up and down, There's none like Nan - cy
rf f rf i 1
1 *
1 N
1
-*
1 J r
-t
<--! - - .
L 1 J : 1
Dawson, Her ea - sy mien, her shape so neat, She foots, she trips, she looks so sweet, Her
r r-- ^ - . 1 *--
' F 1*
r
( 1 5
-0 m H H^-
! !
8 *
-U
P 1
__P pi g 1
-J J -
f- p F- t~
ev' - ry mo - tion's
-f i ? f
_j IF ( IF
so com-plete, I
hg g^ i r-
-| ^
die for Nan - cy
Daw - son.
-i i \
-f D F H
i/
EM
B 1 ^_-^_
=1 . J . .1
720 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
See how she comes to give surprise,
With joy and pleasure in her eyes ;
To give delight she always tries,
So means my Nancy Dawson, &c.
THE TIGHT LITTLE ISLAND.
This tune is a vocal version of The Rogues' March (ante p. 711), and several
popular songs have been sung to it. Among these are The tight little Island
and Abraham Newland.
If it could be ascertained to be of the time of James II. , I should imagine that
the old song of which Sir Wilfull sings a snatch in Congreve's Way of the World,
act iv., sc. 10, was also sung to it; but I am unable to adduce evidence of so
early a date. The lines are
" Prithee, fill me a glass, He that pines for a lass
Till it laugh in my face, Is an ignorant ass,
Of ale that is potent and mellow; For a bumper has not its fellow; "
and they seem to trip to the measure.
The tight little Island was included in several collections of songs published
towards the close of the last century, with the tune.
Abraham Newland was written by Charles Dibdin, jun., on the cashier of
the Bank of England, whose name was formerly attached to bank-notes. It
commences
" Ne'er yet was a name Oh ! Abraham Newland !
So bandied by Fame, Notified Abraham Newland !
Through air, through ocean, and through I've heard people say,
As one that is wrote [land, Sham Abraham you may,
Upon every bank-note, But you must not sham Abraham Newland."
You all must know Abraham Newland.
" Shamming Abraham " means feigning madness as an excuse for begging ;
but a short extract from an old black-letter pamphlet will more fully explain the
term : " These Abraham- men be those that faine themselves to have been mad,
and have been kept either in Bethlehem, or in some other prison, a good time ; and
not one amongst twenty that ever came in prison for any such cause : yet will they
say how piteously and most extreamly they have been beaten and dealt withall.
Some of these be merry and very pleasant; they will daunce and sing." (The
Groundwork of Gonny- catching.) Dekker, in his English Villanies, also says:
" Of these Abraham-men some be exceeding merry, and doe nothing but sing
songs fashioned out of their owne braines," &c. I suspect they succeeded much
better than the whining beggars of the present day.
Percy says that the English have more mad songs than any of their neigh-
bours. True, but at least half of these were written for, or in burlesque of,
Abraham-men.
The first stanza of TJie tight little Island is here adapted to this tune.
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
721
Cheerfully,
Daddy Neptune one day To Freedom did say, " If ev - er I liv'd up-on
dry land, The spot I should hit on Would be lit - tie Britain." Says
Free - dom, "Why that's my own is - land."
is - - land! A right little, tight lit - tie is -land! Seek all the globe round,There'
-f^=^
none can be found So hap - py as this lit - tie
land.
F ' -4
=
' J
, 1 -^1t~
J
1
1 *
1
THE KEEL BOW.
" weel may the keel row " is perhaps the most popular of all the Northum-
brian tunes at the present time. It is contained in several manuscripts of the
latter half of the last century; in Topliff's Selection of Melodies of the Tyne and
Wear ; and in other more modern publications.
722
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
The earliest form in which I have observed it in print is as a country-dance,
entitled Smiling Polly. In several of the collections of the last century, such as
Thompson's 200 Country Dances, ii. 63 [1765], it is so included. In these
copies the second part of the tune differs.
The words of The keel row are in Ritson's Northumberland Garland, 1793 ; in
Bell's Rhymes of the Northern Bards, 1812 ; and in several later collections.
Cheerfully.
As
came thro' Sand-gate, thro' Sand - gate, thro' Sand- gate, As
T 1
I came thro' Sandgate, I heard a las-sie sing: "O weel may the keel row, the
m
j~ij j u j
keel row, the keel row, O weel may the
^fe
keel row, that my laddie's in.'
I 1 \ I-MJ
O whe's like my Johnny,
Sae leish, sae blithe, sae bonny 1
He's foremost among the mony
Keel lads o' coaly Tyne :
He'll set and row so tightly,
Or in the dance so sprightly
He'll cut and shuffle sightly ;
Tis true were he not mine.
He wears a blue bonnet,
Blue bonnet, blue bonnet ;
He wears a blue bonnet,
A dimple in his chin :
And weel may the keel row,
The keel row, the keel row ;
And weel may the keel row,
That my laddie's in.
CAKE, THOU CANKER OF OUR JOYS.
This air is now better known as " When the rosy morn appearing," from the
words which were sung to it, as a Round, in the opera of Rosina. " Care, thou
canker of our joys," was written by the Rev. Dr. Grant, and I was informed by
the late Ralph Banks, organist of Rochester Cathedral, that the tune was com-
posed by John Garth, of Durham, the adapter of English words to Marcello's
Psalms. It has never been published with any name attached.
Charles Mackay's song, "Trusting heart, though men deceive thee," was
written to the tune.
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
723
bmoot/iiy, ana with expression.
PI I s 1 J -^ >
>
i
S
1 1 ^ 1 1
, /i J * J
J J--K J
m v J '
J J
2 v v J
^^
c^ ^
J
^v * d ^
Care, thou can-ker of our joys, Now thy ty
J 1
-rant reign is o'er ;
f }. fr v^ - ^5.
C*J ^
01
rJ h ^
A \ i
Fill the mer-ry, merry bowl, my boys, Join in tac -
zt
cha - na-lian roar.
-a s ji
i
P - P
^ -
a
1 ,
-^ J a ^t
_j k^
E ^~
-s=- =s f
vj-
Seize the villain, plunge him in ;
See the hated miscreant dies :
Mirth and all thy train come in,
Banish sorrow, tears, and sighs.
O'er our merry midnight bowls,
Oh ! how happy shall we be ;
Day was made for vulgar souls,
Night, my boys, for you and me.
I MADE LOVE TO KATE.
There are certain tunes common to England and Scotland, about which the
existing evidence is so nearly balanced that it is very difficult to prove to which
country they owe parentage. One of these is now commonly known in England
as For thafs the time 0' day, and in Scotland as Woo'd and married and a\
Wocfd and married and a' is a song that was a sung by Mr. Lauder at the
little theatre in the Hay Market," and " printed for J. Oswald in St. Martin's
Church Yard." After a little touching up, the words were included in Herd's
Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, 1769. The tune was printed by Bremner in
the seventh number of his Collection of Scots' Heels and Country Dances, and the
seventh and eighth numbers are included in a list of new publications in the
Scots' Magazine for November, 1759.
I made love to Kate is the English name, and it is derived from a song " sung
by Mr. Beard at Ranelagh." When The Jovial Crew was revived at Covent
Garden Theatre (Feb. 14th, 1760), this was so popular that he introduced it at
the end of the second act. Johnson, who published " The Airs in The Jovial
Crew, or Merry Beggars, as performed at the theatre in Covent Garden," desirous
of saving the expense of re-engraving the song, employed the same plate (" sung
by Mr. Beard at Ranelagh ") in the opera. In so doing, he was obliged to print
it out of its proper place, because it would have commenced in the middle of a
page. If we suppose this plate to have been only a few months old, the dates
will be tolerably balanced.
The tune has the character of the hornpipes, rounds, and jigs of which so many
collections were advertised from 1710 to 1760, but which are very difficult to
2 z
724
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
obtain. I am persuaded that it was originally a dance tune, and that neither in
England nor Scotland have we yet arrived at the fountain head. Bremner makes
a whole tone between the seventh and octave at the terminations of each part ;
but the copy sung by Lauder has the semitone, and agrees so far with the
Caledonian Pocket Companion, and with the English version.
Trippingly.
+
m
'*-
I made love to Kate, Long I sigh'd for she, Till I heard of late, That
f
she'd a mind for me. I met her on the green, In her best ar - ray, So
^
'
.X
1 S 1 n
m v j i j 1
9 *-jrA : H
j J 1 n
4
5 * B 9 : H
jjp|- -*- -m-
pret - ty she did seem, She stole
, j 1 ^ _
/ ^ - U
my heart a - way.
H-
:
PETTICOAT LOOSE.
A favorite old country dance. It is included in Peter Thompson's Collection
(1753), in that of Charles and Samuel Thompson (1765), and of Samuel, Ann,
and Peter Thompson (1790). Also in Rutherford's and several others.
Boldly, and marked.
-8-
Fine.
w^-
JF
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II.
725
^
m
* -
i
Z)a capo.
SINCE HODGE PROVES UNGRATEFUL.
This is one of Dr. Arne's tunes, introduced in Love in a Village. It has long
been a favorite, but more especially of late years, in consequence of the following
words having been written to it by Charles Mackay.
Smoothly.
Fare -well to the wood-lands, fare - well to the bowers ; Fare- well to the
home of our hap-pi - est hours ; To plea-sant com - pa-nions, to mirth and to
_J=^ f=E-t ,
song, And the kind-hearted friends we have che-rish'd so long. Our cares and our
J3:
726
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
duties for - bid us to stay, But our thoughts shall be with you wher - e-ver we
~2
Hfe-
stray, And we'll long for the summer to smile on the plain, To bid us re-
:^:
_
P
turn to the woodlands a - gain, To bid us re - turn to the woodlands a
-- -* P
- gain.
And joyous to us shall the memories be
That cling to the scenes where our hearts were so free ;
If care should perplex us, if sorrow should frown,
Or weariness follow the moil of the town ;
We'll think of the days when our faces were bright
With the rambles of morn and the songs of the night,
And nourish the hope, 'mid the winter and rain,
That we come back, with summer, to see you again.
The following are either tunes of some interest of the reign of George III., or
are traditional songs of uncertain date.
TRADITIONAL TUNES OF UNCERTAIN DATE. 727
'TWAS DOWN IN CUPID'S GARDEN.
This is one of the most generally known of traditional songs. Several sets of
words are sung to the tune, but all are about " Cupid's Garden." Some of the
ur tutored singers chant only the second half of the air, and occasionally make
nine bars, by turning the dotted minim on the word " grow" (in the last bar but
two) into a crotchet, thus :
" Cupid's Garden " is a corruption of " Cuper's Gardens," which were once
a celebrated place of amusement on the Surrey side of the Thames, exactly
opposite to Somerset House.
Of these gardens, Dr. Rimbault gives the following account in Fly Leaves
(2 id Series, p. 52) : " They derived their name from Boydell Cuper, a gardener
in the family of Thomas, Earl of Arundel, who, when Arundel House in the
Strand was taken down, had interest enough to procure many of the mutilated
msrbles, which he removed to the gardens he was then forming as a place of
popular amusement." They were opened in 1678, and Aubrey, in his Account of
Surrey, thus speaks of them : " Near the Bankside, lies a very pleasant garden, in
wh ich are fine walks, known by the name of Cupid's (i.e. , Cuper's) Gardens. They
are the estate of Jesus College, in Oxford, and erected by one who keeps a public
house; which, with the conveniency of its arbours, walks, and several remains of
Greek and Roman antiquities, have made this place much frequented."
''About the year 1736, Mrs. Evans, the widow of a man who kept the ancient
tavern known as the ' Hercules' Pillars', in Fleet Street, opposite Clifford's Inn, took
Cuper's Gardens, and erected an orchestra and an organ, intending it as a place of
entartainment for the summer evenings, similar to Vauxhall. It subsequently became
famous for its displays of fireworks. Warburton, the well-known antiquary, writing
to his friend Hurd, "July 9th, 1753, thus describes them : ' I dined the other day with
a Udy of quality, who told me she was going that evening to see the * finest fireworks '
at Marybone. I said fireworks was a very odd refreshment for this sultry weather ;
that;, indeed, Cuper's Gardens had been once famous for this summer entertainment ;
but then his fireworks were so well understood, and conducted with so superior an
understanding, that they never made their appearance to the company till they
had been well cooled by being drawn through a long canal of water, with the same
kinl of refinement that the Eastern people smoke their tobacco through the same
me'lium."
' Cuper's Garden kept up its celebrity for many seasons, but at length yielded to its
formidable rival, Vauxhall, and was finally closed in 1753. Some accounts say that
it was suppressed in consequence of the dissoluteness of its visitors. Indeed, from the
following lines in Welsted's Epistle ' On False Fame,' the company was evidently
not always the most select :
728
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
" The light coquettish trip, the glance askew
To slip the vizor, and to skulk anew
For Cuper's Sowers, she hires the willing scull ;
A cockswain's now, and now a sharper's trull !
A different face by turns, or dress does borrow,
To-day a Quaker, and in weeds to-morrow !
At windows twitters, or from hacks invites;
While here a 'prentice, there a captain bites ;
With new success, new 'ffrontery she attains ;
And grows in riot, as she grows in gains."
~s
-f
' Gracefully
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'Twas
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ilea - sure I did
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go, . . To
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see
j the fair-est
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in that gar- den
yrow : The fi
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-samine, the
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- est flow'rs that
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I'd not walk'd in that garden
The past of half an hour,
When there J saw two pretty maids
Sitting under a shady bow'r.
The first was lovely Nancy,
So beautiful and fair,
The other was a virgin,
Who did the laurel wear, &c.
I boldly stepp'd up to her,
And unto her did say,
Are you engaged to any young man
Do tell to me, I pray !
I'm not engag'd to any young man,
I solemnly do swear ;
I mean to live a virgin,
And still the laurel wear, &c.
Then hand in hand together
This lovely couple went;
Resolved was the sailor boy
To know her full intent ;
To know if he would slighted be,
Wben to her the truth he told :
Oh no ! oh no! oh no! she cried,
I love a sailor bold,
I love a sailor bold !
TRADITIONAL SONGS OF UNCERTAIN DATE.
729
The author of " The Scouring of the White Horse, or The Long Vacation
B ambles of a London Clerk," has given another version of the above. He com-
presses the first three stanzas into two, and varies the termination very
a.nusingly.
BRITONS, STRIKE HOME, MY BOYS.
Not PurcelPs " Britons, strike home," but an old sea-song, contributed by
Mr. Charles Sloman.
It is one which I well remember in the play-ground at Fulham, about forty
years ago. Sometimes half-a-dozen boys would chant it in unison, using most
emphatic action at the words " strike home."
itpTV^-r j n
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Our ship car - ried o
r*%a p 1 f- -^
_j-4_Lj _s j+| ^y
- ver nine hun - dred men, And
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out of nine hun - dred, five
Qj~j~j. Ki H t^y
hun - dred were slain ; For we
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ange the wild seas, where the wind
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blows so strong, While our rak-ish young
L_p j i-f~~F j rl
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^ J ! J - -
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Ir?-_i j!=tr*=3=j f ^ IHTJ i y^~*
he - roes cry, " Bri- tons, strike home, my boys," Cry, "Bri- tons, strike home."
, 1 i i , -rzn- -\ . i _r*, H i j=ri
3 , * r^ j **t 6
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s=5=3 . a
*
730
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
UNDER THE ROSE.
This is one of the common street ballad tunes of London, to which numberless
songs have been sung at various times.
The words here printed, were propagated by the press of Mr. Catnach, in
Monrnouth Court, Seven Dials, about the year 1820. It was at a time when
trade was depressed, and many mechanics were thrown out of employment. The
object of the ballad was to propose a renewal of war as a remedy.
The tune is worthy of better words.
-" / Gracefully.
-&-\) ^
^ j
t (-
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1 '11 ! J
VM) J
As
Were
a__ _,
. ; .-^
Mars and Mi - ner - va were
they for re - pair - ing those
.-3-1 M
view-ing of some im-ple-ments, Bel-
war like in-struments, That'
J .
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4 -
vtp p 1
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x
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- lo - na stept forward and ask - ed the news ; . The mo - ney is withdrawn, and our
now grow-ing rust-y for want to be used?.'
1
*==%
wnii
-r-9-
2=*
trade is di-mi-nish-ing, Me - cha - nics are wand'ring with-out shoes or hose ; Come,
=5t
:
stir up the wars and our trade will be flourishing. This grand conver-sation was un-der the rose.
5
There are several old songs of " Under the Rose." One written in 1647, is
entitled " Prattle your pleasure (under the rose)," and commences
" There is an old proverb, which all the world knows,
Anything may be spoke, ift be under the rose."
In 152t>, roses were placed over Confessionals, the rose being considered as the
emblem of silence. How it came to be so considered has been fully discussed in
the pages of Notes and Queries.
TRADITIONAL SONGS OF UNCERTAIN DATE.
731
SAW YOU MY FATHER ?
This song is printed on broadsides, with the tune, and in Vocal Music, or the
Songster's Companion, ii. 36, 2nd edition, 1772. This collection was printed by
ELobert Horsfield, in Ludgate Street, and probably the words and music will also
be found in the first edition, which I have not seen.
The words are in several " Songsters," such as " The new Pantheon Concert,
being a choice collection of the newest songs, sung this and the last season, at the
Pantheon, Vauxhall, Ranelagh, and other places of entertainment," 8vo., N.D.
The tune is in Thompson's Collection of 200 Country Dances, iii. 99, (1775), in
Straight and Skillern's Collection of 204 Country Dances, &c.
Herd included a Scottified version of the words, in his Ancient and Modern
Scottish Songs, 2nd edition, 1776, (together with " There was a Jolly Miller,"
" Old King Cole," and sundry other English songs), and he has since been copied
ty others.
James Hook (the author of The Lass of Richmond Hill, and many other
charming songs) composed variations to this air, if not the air itself. It is
much in his style of composition.
mlU
Smoothly. ^^
+
Saw you my fa-ther ? Saw you my mo - ther? Saw you my true love
^
John ? He told his on - ly dear That he soon would be here, But
h
3 tO
an o -
ther is gone.
J*"^! '
i
d
^ J
d - -
i
^
m
- 8
I I
I saw not your father,
I saw not your mother,
But I saw your true love John ;
He has met with some delay,
Which has caused him to stay,
But he will be here anon.
Then John he up arose,
And to the door he goes,
And he twirl'd, he twirl'd at the pin ;
The lassie took the hint,
And to the door she went,
And she let her true love in.
Fly up, fly up.
My bonny grey cock,
And crow when it is day ;
Your breast shall be
Of the beaming gold,
And your wings of the silver grey.
Tho cock he proved false,
And untrue he was,
For he crow'd an hour too soon ;
The lassie thought it day,
So she sent her love away,
And it prov'd but the blink of the moon.
732
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
O DEAR, WHAT CAN THE MATTER BE ?
dear, what can the matter be ? came into great public favour towards the
close of the last century, by being sung as a duet at Harrison's concerts. This
must have been not later than 1792, as it is entitled "the favorite duet"
in The British Lyre, or Muses' Repository, the preface to which is dated
Jan. 5th, 1793. It is probably not many years older.
Cheerfully.
Oh ! dear ! what can the matter be ? Dear ! dear ! what can the matter be ?
SEE
Oh ! dear ! what can the matter be ? Johnny's so long at the
Fine.
fair. He
-JH J J I J
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J J
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promised he'd buy me a fair-ing should please me, And then for a kiss, Oh! he vow'd he would teaze me; He
m
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r 1 i* 1
i L
r ' r i
r i r
r ~ r "
r i ' /
promised he'd bring me a bunch of blue ribbons, To tie up my bonny brown hair.
Da capo.
And it's
Oh ! dear ! what can the matter be ?
Dear ! dear ! what can the matter be ?
Oh ! dear ! what can the matter be ?
Johnny's so long at the fair.
He promis'd he'd bring me a basket of posies,
A garland of lilies, a garland of roses,
A little straw hat, to set off the blue ribbons
That tie up my bonny brown hair.
THE LINCOLNSHIRE POACHER.
This song is rather too well known among the peasantry. A friend informed
me, twenty years ago, that he had heard it sung by several hundred voices
together, at Windsor, on the occasion of one of the harvest-homes of King
George IV.
It is well known to another class, by Mr. J. R. Planche's charming song,
" In the Spring time of the year."
TRADITIONAL SONGS OF UNCERTAIN DATE.
733
Jovially.
When I was bound ap - pren - tice, In fa - mous Lin - coin-
^-^
fi
Wi
r
N^
*
shire, Full well I serv'd my mas - ter for more than se -
i
year, Till I took up to poach - ing, As you shall quick-i - ly
a=FT f\l ^F^f
hear, Oh! 'tis my de-light on a shin-ing night, In the sea- son of the year.
~d 1
"I p .
m 1
-T r-H
m . J .
1 |
. P
!
-N ^
f r
ft ^
As me and my comarade were setting of a snare,
'Twas then we spied the gamekeeper, for him we did not care,
For we can wrestle and fight, my boys, and jump o'er anywhere,
Oh ! 'tis my delight on a shining night, in the season of the year.
As me and my comarade were setting four or five,
And taking on 'em up again, we caught a hare alive,
We took the hare alive, my boys, and thro' the woods did steer,
Oh ! 'tis my delight on a shining night, in the season of the year.
I threw him on my shoulder, and then we trudged home,
We took him to a neighbour's house, and sold him for a crown,
We sold him for a crown, my boys, but I did not tell you where,
Oh ! 'tis my delight on a shining night, in the season of the year.
Success to every gentleman that lives in Lincolnshire,
Success to every Poacher that wants to sell a hare,
Bad luck to every gamekeeper that will not sell his deer,
Oh ! 'tis ray delight on a shining night, in the season of the year.
734
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
THE MANCHESTER ANGEL.
The poaching song, " When I was bound apprentice in famous Lincolnshire,"
is sung to this tune in the North of England ; and the site is then changed from
Lincolnshire to Lancashire.
A comparison of the two tunes will afford a curious instance of the mode in
which airs become corrupted and altered by untutored singers. The construction
proves, more than the actual resemblance of notes, that these were originally one
air. In each tune, the third phrase (of four bars) is a repetition of the second,
and the fourth phrase, of the first. The second and third phrases of both are also
nearly the same. The question of priority of date is not easily determined.
Among the ballads sung to this air are " The Sandgate Lass's Lament,"
commencing, " It was a young maiden truly, that liv'd in Sandgate Street," and
" The Manchester Angel," commencing
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tr~fi p^9~
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i 1 I s i s~l
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J J J H
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J 4
J J - * l j j J
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In
com - ing down to Man-ches-ter, to
gain my li - ber-
i ^ m 2 r
\ ) .
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u, 1
a
V
r ZJj USE
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r i b ^ P i
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k 1 ^J" L r '
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s-~
. . I
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saw one of the pret-tiest girls that
e-ver my eyes did
f
2
r-
1 -f = ^-
sq i ^ .
^-1
1 i
1
I saw one of the pret-tiest girls that e-ver my eyes did
m
see. At the An - gel Inn in Man-ches-ter there lives the girl for me.
The fair maiden falls in love with the soldier who courts her, and the song ends
thus : " I'll go down to some nunnery, and there I'll end my life ;
I never will get married I will not be a wife
But constant and true-hearted for ever I'll remain ;
I never will be married till my soldier comes again."
TRADITIONAL TUNES OF UNCERTAIN DATE. 735
EAKLY ONE MORNING.
If I were required to name three of the most popular songs among the servant-
maids of the present generation, I should say, from my own experience, that they
are Cupid's Garden, I soufd the seeds of love, and Early one morning. I have
hoard Early one morning sung by servants, who came from Leeds, from Hereford,
and from Devonshire, and by others from parts nearer to London.
The tune of Early one morning was, I believe, first printed in my collection of
National English Airs ; but the words are contained in many old song-books, such
a,s Sleepy Davy's 0-arland, The Songster's Magazine, &c.
In the National English Airs, a version was printed from one of the penny
song-books collected by Ritson ; and it is curious that scarcely any two copies
agree beyond the second line, although the subject is always the same, a damsel's
complaint for the loss of her lover.
The following was given to me by the late R. Scrafton Sharpe, who recollected
it from childhood :
"Early one morning, just as the sun was rising,
I heard a damsel to sing and to sigh,
Crying, Cupid ! send my lover to me,
Send me my sailor, or else I shall die.
How can you slight a young girl that loves you ?
False-hearted young man ! tell me for why.
What was your cruel notion, to plough the raging ocean,
And leave me behind you, to sob and to sigh?"
In Sleepy Davy's G-arland, it commences thus :
" Early one morning, near the sun rising,
I heard a damsel most sweetly to sing,
Crying, kind Cupid ! pray now defend me,
Send my poor yielding heart into my breast again."
Here the particular occupation of the youth is not mentioned; but in TJie
Songster's Magazine he is a " gentle shepherd."
" Early one morning, just as the sun was rising,
I heard a pretty damsel to sigh and complain ;
Oh ! gentle shepherd, why am I forsaken ?
Oh ! why should I in sorrow complain ? "
An utter disregard of rhyme pervades many of the copies, but they nearly all
( nd with, or include, a complaint like the following :
" How can you slight a heart that doth love you,
Perjured young man, now tell me for why ?
It was your false wooing that first prov'd my ruin,
And now for the falsest of men I must die."
Of the tune I can say no more than that it bears relationship to a hornpipe
that was formerly played at the theatres, and was known by the name of " Come,
Jill you young blades that in robbing take delight," from a slang song, com-
mencing with that line.
736
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
The words here printed with the tune are those most frequently sung in the
present day :
Gracefully.
Ear -.ly one morn-ing, just as the sun was ris - ing, I heard a maid
sing in the val - ley be - low: "Oh! don't de - ceive me, Oh! ne-ver
'
Oh ! gay is the garland, and fresh are the roses
I've culled from the garden to bind on thy brow;
Oh, don't deceive me ! Oh, do not leave me !
How could you use a poor maiden so ?
Remember the vows that you made to your Mary,
Remember the bow'r where you vow'd to be true ;
Oh, don't deceive me ! Oh, do not leave me !
How could you use a poor maiden so ?
Thus sung the poor maiden, her sorrows bewailing,
Thus sung the poor maid in the valley below ;
" Oh, don't deceive me ! Oh, do not leave me !
How could you use a poor maiden so ? "
FAREWELL TO YOU, YE FINE SPANISH LADIES.
The tune, and one verse of the words, of this famous old sea-song were con
tributed to my former collection by Lord Vernon. The words seem to be very
generally known, since I have been favored with copies by Mr. W. Durrant
Cooper, F.S.A., Mr. W. Sandys, F.S.A., and Mr. Oliphant.
Mr. Durrant Cooper procured them from an old seaman, at Corson Bay,
Devon ; Mr. Sandys from a hale and hearty septuagenarian friend, Mr. J. C.
Schetky. They have since been printed by Captain Marryat, in his novel
of Poor Jack, and by Mr. J. H. Dixon, in Songs of the Peasantry.
The copies vary, but the limits of space will only permit me to give two
versions of the first stanza :
" Now farewell to you, ye fine Spanish ladies ;
Now farewell to yon, ye ladies of Spain !
For we've rcceiv'd orders to sail for old England,
And perhaps we may never more see you again."
TRADITIONAL TUNES OF UNCERTAIN DATE.
737
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Fare - well and a - dieu to you, Spa - nish la - dies ! Fare-
i
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1
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A J
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well and a - dieu to you, la -dies of Spain! For we've re-ceived or-ders to
m
s
En -
sail for old Eng - land, But we hope in a
short time to
see you a - gam.
ff c ;
3 1
1 1
1 ^
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V
H-H
We'll range and we'll rove like true British sailors;
We'll range and we'll rove all on the salt seas ;
Until we strike soundings in the channel of England ;
From Ushant to Scilly is thirty-five leagues.
We hove our ship to, with the wind at sou'west, boys,
We hove our ship to, for to strike soundings clear,
Then fill'd the main topsail, and bore right away, boys,
And straight up the Channel our course we did steer.
The first land we made, it is called the Deadman,
Next Ram Head, off Plymouth, Start, Portland, and Wight;
We sailed by Beachy, by Fairly, and Dungeness,
And then bore away for the South Foreland Light.
Then the signal was made for the grand fleet to anchor,
All in the Downs that night for to sleep ;
Now stand by your stoppers, see clear your shank painters,
Hawl up your clew garnets, stick out tacks and sheets.
Now let ev'ry man toss off a full bumper,
Now let ev'ry man take off his full bowl,
For we will be jolly, and drown melancholy,
With a health to each jovial and true-hearted soul.
O DEAR TWELVE PENCE.
This song affords a whimsical exhibition of the uncertainty of human resolution
in point of matrimonial or domestic felicity :
" O dear twelve pence, I've got twelve pence,
I love twelve pence as I love my life ;
I'll grind a penny on't, and I'll end another on't,
And I'll carry tenpence home to my wife."
738
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
The last sum, however, by the diminuendo of two pence at each verse, causes
the song to end with "I'll carry nothing home to my wife."
Another version beginning
" I love sixpence, a jolly, jolly sixpence."
will be found in Ritson's Crammer Gurton's Garland, or The Nursery Parnassus,
and in Rimbault's Nursery Rhymes.
The tune was contributed to my first collection by the late T. Dibdin, " the
last of the three Dibdins," and I then recollected having heard it sung to the
words, " My man Thomas did me promise," when a schoolboy. This is my
reason for printing those words to the tune, and the reader can form his own
opinion of the probability or improbability of the tradition. I confess to small
faith in anything of the kind, when the tunes are not to be found in print
or manuscript ; but some of the words of the nursery songs are certainly very old,
and very few of the airs were published until quite a late period.
The words of u My man Thomas" are alluded to in A Grew of kind Grossips,
all met to le merrie, by S[amuel] R[owlands] 4to., 1613, and in Fletcher's play,
Monsieur Thomas.
In the former, one of the wives says of her husband
" He hath a song cald Mistris will you doe ?
And My man Thomas did me promise too ;
He hath TJie Pinnace rig'd with silken saile,
And Pretty Birds, with Garden Nightingale :
lie tie my mare in thy ground, a new way,
Worse than the players sing it in the play :
Bessefor abuses, and a number more
That you and I have never heard before."
Of the above-named songs, A pinnace rigg'd with silken sail is preserved in
a manuscript written in the time of James I., now in the possession of Mr. Payne
Collier, and Til tie my mare in thy ground is a well-known catch. In Fletcher's
Monsieur Thomas, act iii., sc. 3, the maid sings the first three lines of the
following, and Thomas answers :
Cheerfully.
1
My man Tho-mas -Did me pro-mise,
He would vi - sit
_^
me this night
3=3 ~^=^ fiFr-
i n Y i 1 1
" I am here, love ; Tell me, dear love,
m m m -
= ? L J : < U-J1. L-$=2=
How I may oh - tain thy sight."
i-J ^ek4=i=|
U 1 ' f-P
H *- F-
^=f H^ m
TRADITIONAL TUNES OF UNCERTAIN DATE.
739
THE MOON SHALL BE IN DARKNESS.
A fragment of another well-known street ditty, contributed by Mr. Charles
Sloman.
Tenderly, but not very slowly
iN=Fb~
-y slowly.
-?-&--
The moon shall be in dark-ness, and the stars shall give no light, If
J==* '
e - ver I prove false to my own heart's de - light j In the
mid-die of the o - cean there shall grow a myr - tie tree, If
^=H
! f f | f f ' rq
m F \\ 1
Mi P P-l
-^ r h
^=^
-4 1 -I"
~a E E
^:
e - ver I prove false to the
i=A=^
girl that loves me.
=E
THE BLUE BELL OF SCOTLAND.
Ritson prints this song in his North Country Chorister, 1802, under the title of
" The new Highland Lad." He says, in a note, " This song has been lately
introduced upon the stage by Mrs. Jordan, who knew neither the words, nor the
tune." As to the words, all the verses were not fit for the stage ; therefore,
Mrs. Jordan selected four, made trifling alterations in them, and sang them to a
tune of her own. The old tune (although not at all like a Scotch air), is in-
cluded in Johnson's Scots' Musical Museum (vi. 566). It has been entirely
superseded in popular favour by that of Mrs. Jordan.
" The blue bell of Scotland, a favourite ballad, as composed and sung by
Mrs. Jordan at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane," was entered at Stationers' Hall
on the 13th of May, 1800, and the music published by Longman and Co.
In the Douce Collection, p. 105, is a ballad entitled " Joyful news for maids
and young women," &c., " to the tune of The blue bells of Ireland;" but I have
not met with any tune under that name. The burden of the ballad is
" And the blue bells of Ireland Arid the blue bells of Ireland
Kings well and rings well ; Rings ding, dong, bell."
3 A
740
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
The song quoted by Mr. C. Kirkpatrick Sharpe, " 0, fair maid,whase aught
that bonny bairn," is in a different metre, and could not be sung to any of these
airs. Mrs. Grant's song, " where, tell me where, is your Highland laddie
gone ? " was written after this tune had been rendered popular by Mrs. Jordan's
singing. Stenhouse (as usual) gives a wrong date.
Gracefully. I
I I
Oh! where, and oh! where is your H'igh-land lad - die
-X- 1
f=hH-
,=i j /i
j j J r
, 1
gone ? Oh !
where, and oh!
i "j r c i
where is your
3=^^
H'
gh-landlad-die
j - "~l
gone?
Q -
Lp n
' 1 N
L ^^
*-^=$=^
' j. r i '
r 1
F^ 1 H
H P r~~r~
J J J 7-j-
i ' i ii
He's
f*
- J J J s
gone to fight the
^ =t^
-d r l^
French for King
t = f-Fi- J f
George up - on the
h* f j H
;hrone, And its
in b r i
-N
E3= EEI
L_3 3
-J -1 J j_
-J ! 1 1
j=&
oh ! in my
leart, how I
wish him safe at home !
I
Oh ! where, and oh ! where does your Highland laddie dwell ?
He dwells in merry Scotland, at the sign of the Blue Bell ;
And it's oh ! in my heart, that I love my laddie well.
What clothes, in what clothes is your Highland laddie clad ?
His bonnet's of the Saxon green, his waistcoat of the plaid ;
And it's oh ! in my heart, that I love my Highland lad.
Suppose, oh ! suppose that your Highland lad should die !
The bagpipes shall play over him, I'll lay me down and cry ;
And it's oh ! in my heart, that I wish he may not die.
THE COLLEGE HORNPIPE.
All hornpipes in common time are of comparatively late date, perhaps in no
ease earlier than the last century, and generally of the latter half.
The genuine old English hornpipe was in triple time, simple or compound ; and
although, about the commencement of the last century, some were reprinted, and
then marked ?, they are, nevertheless, in time. For instance, "The famous
Darbysheire Hornpipe," in " An extraordinary Collection of pleasant and merry
TRADITIONAL TUNES OF UNCERTAIN DATE.
741
Humours, never before published : containing Hornpipes, Jiggs, North Country
Frisks, Morrises, Bagpipe-Hornpipes, and Rounds, with severall additional
Fancies added ; fit for all that play [in] publick." Although this collection was
entered at Stationers' Hall in 1713 (21st May), the hornpipe was composed by
Hale, the Derbyshire piper, in the reign of Charles II. If there were not the
copy of the music printed under Hale's portrait to refer to, the division, or
variation, would clearly prove it to be in triple time. In modern notation,
instead of time, it should be thus :
I make these remarks because the manner of dancing the hornpipe has
certainly been changed. The stage hornpipes of the latter half of the last century,
and the steps taught by dancing-masters within the last forty years to tunes in
common time, cannot have agreed with the ancient country way of dancing.
The College Hornpipe, in spite of its extended compass, is the tune to which an
old sailor's song, called Jack's the lad, is sung. A copy of the words, printed in
Seven Dials, was once in my possession,
Cheerfully.
-1
-f-
L
_^ ^
9- f- H
_ JL.
i ^i
~f f~
-
a
P~
~>~
F
P
1
i t t^
P
X r
1
r
I
1
1
^
1 |
jf
F-
^ r f^ff-i-. . .. n T] I J .
E^^EE^^^^E^p^^J^J^
t -
742 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
THE STORMY WINDS DO BLOW.
A fragment of an old sea song, contributed by Mr. Charles Sloman in 1840,
and the tune noted down from his singing. I have since received several other
copies, and fragments of various songs, which have the same burden, and are sung
to it. One is as follows :
" One Friday morn when we set sail,
Not very far from land,
We there did espy a fair pretty maid
With a comb and a glass in her hand, her hand, her hand,
W^ith a comb and a glass in her hand.
While the raging seas did roar,
And the stormy winds did blow,
While we jolly sailor boys were up unto the top,
And the land-lubbers lying down below, below, below,
And the land-lubbers lying down below.
Then up starts the captain of our gallant ship,
And a brave young man was he ;
I've a wife and a child in fair Bristol town,
But a widow I fear she will be, &c.
For the raging seas, &c.
Then up starts the mate of our gallant ship,
And a bold young man was he ;
Oh ! I have a wife in fair Portsmouth town,
But a widow I fear she will be, &c.
For the raging seas, &c.
Then up starts the cook of our gallant ship,
And a gruff old soul was he ;
Oh ! I have a wife in fair Plymouth town.
But a widow I fear she will be, &c.
For the raging seas, &c.
And then up spoke the little cabin-boy,
And a pretty little boy was he ;
Oh ! I am more griev'd for my daddy and my mammy,
Than you for your wives all three, &c.
For the raging seas, &c.
Then three times round went our gallant ship,
And three times round went she;
For the want of a life -boat they all went down,
And she sank to the bottom of the sea, &c.
For the raging seas, &c."
I have also the second, third, fourth, and fifth stanzas of the above, with but
slight variation, to another tune.
In the chorus of the following song, upon the word " flash " there is a flourish
which some singers omit. They hold on the first note of it (D) as a dotted
minim. It is, however, more frequently to be heard as here printed.
TRADITIONAL TUNES OF UNCERTAIN DATE.
Right jovially, and moderately fast.
743
3=4
m
Then up spoke the cap-tain of our gallant ship, And a brave young man was
-J--J J
I have sixty gallant sea - men a - board of my ship, But
none half so gal - lant as he, as he, as he, But there's none half so gal - lant as he."
_/ Chorus.
While the vi - vid light - nings flash, . .
+, \^4- ' ' -4-
ile the vi - vid light - nings flash, .... And the storm-y winds do
blow ; While we poor sea - men are up, up a - loft, And the
=&=t
*
=*
m
\
mam
"^y "*" T^
landsmen are all down be-low, be-low, below, And the landsmen are all down be -low
Fr
f^
:^i
-*-a
w gr
744
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
LET THE TOAST PASS.
This is the tune of Sheridan's song of "Here's to the maiden of bashful
fifteen," in his comedy, The School for Scandal (1777). The second part is
nearly the same as the first part of the very old country dance, Half Hannikin
(ante p. 74).
; rr~i ,
I ,.,...
E=ff=- J |
f . m P--J
Sc5
4 ' .
_p . * . :
~ * i
' I J
Here's to the maid-en of bash-ful fif-teen, Now to the wi-dow of fif - ty ;
^ . 1 J . _ . 1 J .
1 X ej
s i
) $? a. Os
1 OS >
u o 3
I~Q . ^ -O- "
n
1 1
E
1 _j p * p i
1
"1 1 , . 1 ' 1 i "1
i IiJ ^K ~
I
-M T r-ti
.. __3 I_.F p_ '
Here's to the flaunting ex - tr
m F-
' * { -< ' * J
a- vagant quean, And here's to the h
^ * ^r^rB
ousewife that's thrifty.
S m ' '
i* *
i* * *
_J_. C_ , 2
f-^ r 1 t : -
r ^ E~H*-"-
_^ |L_ L
t- p^p
r= Lfuf^u
d =P 5 ^=F=F
Let the toast pass, Drink to
m^
the lass, I war-rant she'll prove an ex - cuse for the glass.
-_^_L_p_^
1 L_^
1 I s m ' '
r 1 '
J 1 r
J -
j . i
J c
*
CHORUS.
1
Let the toast pass, Drink to the lass, I war-rant she'll prove an ex - cuse for the glass.
-j . L-l. ^
^^^^
N "P- 8ves
Here's to the charmer whose dimples we prize,
Now to the damsel with none, sir,
Here's to the girl with a pair of blue eyes,
And now to the nymph with but one, sir.
Let the toast pass, &c.
Here's to the maid with a bosom of snow,
Now to her that's as brown as a berry,
Here's to the wife with a face full of woe,
And now to the damsel that's merry.
Let the toast pass, &c.
For let her be clumsy, or let her be slim,
Young or ancient, I care not a feather;
So fill up a bumper, nay, fill to the brim,
And let us e'en toast 'em together.
Let the toast pass, &c.
TRADITIONAL TUNES OF UNCERTAIN DATE.
745
THE BAELEY-MOW.
The barley-mow is a song still well known in many of the counties of England.
In Hertfordshire, it is frequently sung by the countrymen in ale-houses after their
daily labour. Mr. J. H. Dixon prints a Suffolk version in his Songs of the
Peasantry, and Mr. Sandys, the Devonshire and Cornwall version, in his Specimens
of Cornish Provincial Dialect.
It is customarily chanted at the supper after the carrying of the barley is com-
pleted, when the stack, rick, or mow of barley is finished.
Cheerfully.
Here's a health to the bar- ley-mow, my boys, A health to the bar-ley
We'll drink it out of the nut - brown bowl, A health to the bar -ley
ft Q ~
i? c
-i - i f
-p=
mow. The nipperkin, pipperkin, and the brown bowl, A health to the bar- ley-
?=tt
s h i n
I I ' - I 1
I JT
^l
j s J r~
mow, my boys, A
I
health to the bar - ley -
mow
J-
S ^
F k
T J- J i
1 . pL
m ^
m
F
The size of the drinking measure is doubled at each verse. The brown bowl is
supposed to contain half-a-pint ; the next is " We'll drink it out of the pint, my
boys ; " then the quart, pottle, and gallon, on to the barrel or hogshead, if the
lungs of the singer enable him to hold out for so many verses. The words
increase in number as the song goes on, for after " nipperkin, pipper,kin," the
singer adds one of the larger measures, pint, quart, pottle, &c., at each successive
verse, always finishing (as in verse 1), " and the brown bowl."
This is after the manner of one of the Freemen's Songs in Deuteromelia,
beginning " Give us once a drink, gentle butler," where the singers first ask for
the black bowl, then the pint pot, quart pot, pottle, gallon, verkin (firkin),
kilderkin, barrel, hogshead, pipe, butt, and finally the tun.
746
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
NEAR THE TOWN OF TAUNTON DEAN.
A well-known Somersetshire tune, first printed in my former collection. The
words are here completed from a fragment by Mr, John Oxenford, only the first
six lines being old.
Near the town of Taun - ton Dean, Up - on a plea - sant green, There
^T
f
lives the mil-ler's daugh-ter fair, Her age is sweet eigh - teen. Her
skin's like a - la-bas-ter white, Like diamonds are her eyes, There's not a mine of
3-1
jew-els fine, That half so much I prize, I prize, That half so much I prize.
I'm saving up my money fast,
And will he rich at last,
Because I mean that girl to wed
Before a year is past.
I soon shall buy her wedding-dress,
E'en now I've bought the ring;
Oh, of Taunton Dean she is the queen.
And I shall be her king, her king,
And I shall be her king.
The lads around are looking out
To win her heart, no doubt,
But I can watch as sharp as they,
And wield a cudgel stout.
So, youngster, now your distance keep
Upon my wedding-day
You shall be a guest to share the feast,
And help us to be gay, be gay,
And help us to be gay,
TRADITIONAL TUNES OF UNCERTAIN DATE.
747
O RARE BOTHAM BOY.
A common country tune, the words of which I have been unable to obtain.
ifl"! v Q.
J ^ *
S32 133 J
* m 4
J fl 4 J f J
J
9 -m-
' \ K (* 9
<''iV, M r '-
fa 1 j . 1 1 1
^7~f^
"I*
* * -J * . -J
K I s 1
_J_ d -J- g *
1 N-i 1 n -1 K-J JV- 1 -1 1
* * .
__ _H ^_i ^^^g J-=~
i 33 .
~s \
^j y i ^P < H - * . t-^-
i d '
g 1 -j^ , II <2^i Hlb~|* 1
1 n 1 K-I fe 1
P* 1
\
-i r ^HH J j^-^H
^^
m
F
j 1~?
-ns
Fl i
1 +-*r-
-J ff
M
1 R h
H i j~
: -J r~
O rare
1 j
; ] j-
Bo - tham boy,
T* 1
_3_ -}*-
Rant - ing, roar - ing,
"1 J * _.t
all my joy,
1 h
_j j
-J-r-^M-
r^
.j.iU___p
1 1 *
J K J ir-
: 4-H^-4-^
O rare Bo - tbam bo
~^
T
|
3 r~3
U-W-v-i
S 1
-
. r -L L i
[ [ : c :
M
4 s
1^-
__J ^_J
u h H ^ r F -*
.J
. J. "
WE ARE POOR FROZEN OUT GARDENERS.
This is the tune of many songs. If the reader should meet any half-a-dozen
men perambulating the streets of London together, and singing, the probabilities
are great that they sing to this tune. Sometimes the men are dressed like sailors ;
at, other times they look like workmen out of employment. I recollect hearing
the tune at Kilburn, full forty years ago, and have, with tolerable annual
regularity, ever since. I regret never having stopped to hear the words.
748
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
-" n ^ uoiaiy
M d J i J J 1 J J
J-r-^ t~T^~~ T ~l
We
q-^H-^i^-i^r
are poor fro-zen out gar-den
p.
^* J . * 3 ^__t
-ers,
1^
9 ^ ff
"S '
1 i
J ^_ 1 1_
LJ J_J_ i J J-H i~^~
1 J ^ J f!Z -
tf-i f} j 1 1 .
Q~7l5L| 1
We'v
u^ I i'Ji 1
e got no work to do.
s
1 J f
-^ r LJ \ u
Lp J ?L.I L 11
&
^
RANTERS' HYMNS.
The Primitive Methodists, or Ranters, acting upon the principle of " Why
should the devil have all the pretty tunes ? " collect the airs which are sung at
pot and public houses, and write their hymns to them. If the original words
should be coarse, or indelicate, they are thought the more to require this trans-
formation. I do not stop to enquire whether the hearers can readily divest
themselves of the old associations, the motive is good, without doubt, however
ill-directed the effort.
In this sect we have living examples of the " puritans who sing psalms to
hornpipes." They do not mince the matter by turning them into slow tunes, and
disguising them by harmony, but sing them in their original lively time.
The system of employing secular music for sacred purposes is not, however,
confined to Ranters. Even now, in France, Roman Catholic children sing their
cantiques in the churches to
" C'est 1'amonr, I'amour, 1'amour
Qui fait la monde a la ronde ; "
and to other tunes of the same class : nor are we of the Church of England very
unlike them, while a portion of our clergy will have such an Advent Hymn, as
" Lo ! He comes, in clouds descending," to the the tune of
" Guardian Angels, now protect me,
Send to me the youth I love "
TRADITIONAL TUNES OF UNCERTAIN DATE.
749
(ft song in The Crolden Pippin) ; or sing other hymns to such tunes as Rousseau's
Dream, a pantomime air in J. J. Rousseau's opera, Le Devin du Village. It is
inexcusable with us, for no Church can boast of finer music in the true eccle-
siastical style.
The following is one of the Ranters' most favorite hymns :
_s * F t
H I
s ! ^
J/ k^k~^~
_ |
H
~n
r j
A
~^ d^ 1 s:
i
~T
L
j
c S
M J N
vJy cj
J
J'
j
P '
<J
9 ' ~
+ -+ m * "
-j-
Stop ! poor
sin
- ner, stop
and think
be - fore you fur - ther go !
How
rK-iT-lr-
gfeas
-f
iIVs
-tr-f-
-a f- = P -a i N
=r |-
Hrfr
^-s-
3
J-
+-
I 1
3
BE _t=
-H-
i-
-4
@l
1-
m-
can you sport up - on the brink of
rrt:
e - ver - last - ing woe ?
s
=P=W
i
J-
Hell be-neath is gap - ing wide, Vengeance waits the dread command, If you do not
Once a -gain, I charge you, stop ! For, un-less you warn-ing take, Here, you are a-
-&. * -&
Turn a -side, You will all be damn'd!
ware you'll drop In - to the burn - ing lake.
When the preachers of the sect are about to quit one congregation to go to
another, they sing the following to the tune of Bonnie Laddie, Highland Laddie :
Breth-ren, I must haste a - way, Hal - le - lu - jah, hal - le - lu - jah ;
=*=3 "-I * J J j * J J ] I L-" '^J TJ^
Here I can no longer stay, Hal-le -lu-jah, hal-le -lu-jah; Happy, happy may you be,
Hal-le-lu-jah,hal-le-lu-jah, Un-to all e-ter-ni - ty, Hal-le -lu-jah, hal-le- lu-jah.
750
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
THE CORN GRINDS WELL.
This is a well-known tune to which several songs are sung. I am told that
The Derbyshire Miller is one, but have not seen the words.
The following fragment was noted down, with the tune, from the singing of
Mr. Charles Sloman :
I
I
The mil - ler he caught the maid by the toe, What d'ye call this, my
-r-L-, J '
r' f* * - , *~
a ^ 5 1 i i 1 i i 1 1
1 ^ ^Lj_
j ^ d
=A=^-^= m
-fJ 4 J \-t
1 1-
9 w
dear - est ? The mil - ler he caught the
9 9'
maid by the toe, What d'ye call this, my
E ^-5- Zi=q +_
F * c
dear -est? Oh, this is my toe, near to my shoe sole, My toe on my ter-ri-to-
- ry ; I'm the maid of the mill, And the corn grinds well.
:P=
CHRISTMAS CAROLS.
Christmas Carols were of two sorts : the one serious, and commonly sung
through the streets, or from house to house, to usher in the Christmas morning ;
the other of a convivial character, and adapted to the festive entertainments of
the season. We have seen how, in the fifteenth century, a minstrel could make
one tune to answer for both, singing
" Nowell, nowell, nowell, nowell,
This is the salutation of the Angel Gabriel,"
in the morning, to the same tune as
" Bring us in good ale, and bring us in good ale,
For our blessed lady's sake, bring us in good ale,"
TRADITIONAL TUNES OF UNCERTAIN DATE. 751
in the evening (ante i. 42) ; but he adds "If so be that ye will have another
tune, it may be at your pleasure," and I have no doubt that the festive carols
wore usually sung to dance- tunes. I have found many which are directed to be
sung to such airs, and one of the significations of the word " caroling," and the
sense in which it was most frequently used in the fourteenth and fifteenth cen-
turies, was to sing or warble to dancing. (See Chaucer passim.) Caroling was
afterwards used to express the singing or warbling of a lively tune, with or
without the dancing.
I imagine the word to be used in this sense by Trevisa, vicar of Berkeley, who,
in the year 1398, made a free translation of a book on the nature and qualities
of different things, written in Latin about thirty years before, by an English
Franciscan friar (Bartholomseus, De Proprietatibus Rerum). He tells us that
when boys had passed the age of seven years, they were " sette to lernynge, and
compellid to take lernynge and chastysynge." That at that age, they are " ply-
aunt of body, able and lyghte to moevinge, wytty to lerne car oiks ^ and wythoute
besynesse, and drede noo perylles more than betynge with a rodde ; and they love
an apple more than golde," &c. I suspect that the boys were more ready to
warble lively tunes, and perhaps to catch up a few of the words, than to learn
religious songs.
Warton, in his History of English Poetry, attributes the introduction of the
religious carol to the Puritans ; but this is clearly a mistake, for there are many
extant which were in use long before the age of puritanism. Nevertheless, the
"jolly carols," as Tusser calls them, were by far the more popular in early times.
" The lewid peple than algates agre,
And caroles singen everi' Criste messe tyde,
Not with schamfastenes, hot jocondle ;
And, holly bowghes aboute, and al asydde
The brenning fyre, hem eten and hem drinke,
And laughen mereli, and maken route ;
And pype and dansen, and hem rage ; ne swinke [i.e., labour]
Ne noe thynge els, twalve daye' thei wolde not."
Lud. Coll, xlv. H. 1.
The oldest printed collection of Christmas Carols is that which was published
by Wynkyn de Worde in 1521, but the songs are of a festal character, including
the famous " Boar's-head Carol," which is still sung annually, on Christmas Day,
at Queen's College, Oxford.
" In the West of England," says Mr. Sandys, " and especially in the western
parts of Cornwall, carol-singing is still kept up, the singers going about from
house to house, wherever they can obtain encouragement." In the West of
England also, until very lately, rejoicings of all kinds commenced on Christmas
Eve. The day was passed in the ordinary manner ; " but at seven or eight o'clock
in the evening, cakes were drawn hot from the oven ; cyder or beer exhilarated
tho spirits in every house ; and the singing of carols was continued late into the
ni.^ht. On Christmas Day, these carols took the place of psalms in all the
ch arches, especially at afternoon service, the whole congregation joining ; and at
tho end, it was usual for the parish clerk to declare, in a loud voice, his wishes for
a merry Christmas and a happy new year to all the parishioners." (Preface to
Christmas Carols , &c., by Davies Gilbert, 2nd edit., 1823.)
752 ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
According to Wordsworth, the singing of carols also commenced in the North
of England on Christmas Eve. In some lines addressed to his brother, the Rev.
Dr. Wordsworth, he writes thus :
" The minstrels played their Christmas Or they are offered at the door
tune, That guards the lowliest of the poor.
To-nignt heneath my cottage eaves :
Keen was the air, but could not freeze, ** ow Aching, when at midnight sweep
Nor check the music of their strings ; Snow-muffled winds, and all is dark,
So stout and hardy were the band Jo hear and sink again to sleep I
That scraped the chords with strenuous ^ r > ?* an ea er call > to mark,
hand. .By blazing fire, the still suspense
Of self-complacent innocence.
And who but listen'd ? till was paid
Respect to every inmate's claim ; The mutual nod the grave disguise
The greeting given, the music played 9 ts Wlth S ladnes8 burning o'er ;
In honour of each household name, And some unb idden tears that rise
Dulv pronounced with lusty call For names onc e heard, and heard no more ;
And merry Christmas ' wished to all ! ... Jears brightened by the serenade
or infant in the cradle laid I
For pleasure hath not ceased to wait Hail, ancient manners ! sure defence,
On these expected annual rounds, Where they survive, of wholesome laws,"
Whether the rich man's sumptuous gate <fcc.
Call forth the unelaborate sounds,
The singing of religious carols is also heard in some of the midland counties,
and, even in the streets of London, boys go about on the morning of Christmas
Day, singing and selling them. Hone gives a list of eighty-nine carols in use
within the last few years, excluding the numerous compositions published by
religious societies, under the name of carols.
The reader who seeks for information about carols, wassail songs, and other
' O 7
celebrations of Christmas, will find an ample fund of amusement and instruction
in Christmas-tide, its History, Festivities, and Carols, by W. Sandys, F.S.A., and
some further collections towards the history of carol-singing in the preface to
A little book of Christmas Carols, by Edward F. Rimbault, LL.D.
To Mr. Sandy s's Collection I am chiefly indebted for the following traditional
tunes to religious carols :
GOD REST YOU, MERRY GENTLEMEN.
The words of this carol are in the Roxburghe Collection (iii. 452), together
with three other "choice Carols for Christmas Holidays," for St. Stephen's^
St. John's, and Innocents' days. The tune was printed by Hone, in his Facetiae,
to a " political Christmas Carol," beginning
" God rest you, merry gentlemen, With both our lips at liberty,
Let nothing you dismay ; To praise Lord C[astlereag]h
Remember we were left alive For his ' practical ' comfort and joy," &c.
Upon last Christmas Day,
I have seen no earlier copy of the tune than one in the handwriting of
Dr. Nares, the cathedral composer, in which it is entitled " The old Christmas
Carol ;" but I have received many versions from different sources, for no carol
seems to be more generally known.
In the Halliwell Collection of Broadsides, No. 263, Chetham Library, is
"The overthrow of proud Holofernes, and the Triumph of virtuous Queen
Judith ; to the tune of Tidings of comfort and joy." As those words form the
burden of " God rest you, merry gentlemen," the two are to the same air.
TRADITIONAL TUNES OF UNCERTAIN DATE.
753
The May-day, or Mayers' Song, which is printed by Hone, in his Every-day
Bvok (i. 569), "as sung at Hitchin,in Hertfordshire," is also to this tune. It is
a semi-religious medley, a puritanical May-song (" of great antiquity," says
Hone), and begins thus :
We have been rambling all the night,
And almost all the day,
And now, returned back again,
We have brought you a branch of May."
The carol is sometimes sung in a major key, and sometimes in a minor ;
besides which difference, scarcely any two copies agree in the second part.
Having printed Hone's version, and one in a major key, in National English
Airs, I now give a third copy, noted down by Dr. Rimbault. It has a repetition
of words at the end which some others have not. ^ g
Moderate ti
" .Remember us poor Mayers all,
And thus we do begin,
To lead our lives in righteousness,
Or else we die in sin.
i
God rest you, mer - ry gen - tie - men, Let no - thing you dis-
- may ; For Je - sus Christ, our Sa - vi - our, Was born on Christ-mas - day,
s- r
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To save us all from Sa - tan's pow'r, When we were gone a -
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- stray : O
tid - ings of com - fort and of joy, comfort and
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tid - ings of
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joy.
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754
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
In Bethlehem, in Jewry, this blessed babe was born,
And laid within a manger, upon this blessed morn ;
The which his mother Mary did nothing take in scorn.
O tidings, &c.
From God, our Heavenly Father, a blessed Angel came,
And unto certain Shepherds brought tidings of the same,
How that in Bethlehem was born the Son of God by name.
O tidings, &c.
Fear not, then said the Angel, let nothing you affright,
This day is born a Saviour of a pure Virgin bright,
To free all those who trust in Him from Satan's pow'r and might.
O tidings, &c.
The Shepherds at those tidings rejoiced much in mind,
And left their flocks a feeding, in tempest, storm, and wind,
And went to Bethlehem straightway, this blessed babe to find.
O tidings, &c.
But when to Bethlehem they came, where our dear Saviour lay,
They found Him in a manger where oxen feed on hay ;
His mother Mary, kneeling, unto the Lord did pray.
O tidings, &c.
Now to the Lord sing praises, all you within this place,
And with true love and brotherhood each other now embrace ;
This holy tide of Christmas all others doth deface.
O tidings, &c.
GOD BLESS YOU, MERKY GENTLEMEN.
Another carol tune, to the same words, from Sandys' s Collection.
Moderate time.
God bless you, merry gen - tie - men, Let no-thing you dis - may;
Le - mem-ber Christ, our Sa - vi - our, Was born on Christ - mas - day,
save poor souls from Sa- tan's pow'r, Who long had gone a - stray.
m
TRADITIONAL TUNES OF UNCERTAIN DATE.
755
O
tid - ings of corn-fort and of
I P=r :
Slower.
For Je - sus Christ, our Sa - vi - our,
4-
as born on
rist- mas - day.
I
i
A VIRGIN MOST PURE.
A Christmas Carol still sung in the West of England, taken from Mr. Sandys's
Collection. The tunes of this and other Carols are not exclusively appropriated to
the words with which they are here united ; various Carols are sung to each air.
Moderate lime.
j\~ k^~$ ~1 J J
-iFj- H i iPi-
j J 1 i *l
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A vir - gin
Hath brought forth
^-^i-^f^-
most puie, as the
a babe, as it
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pro - phets do tell,
hath her be - fell,
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To be our Re
Re - joice and be
- deem - er from death,
mer - ry, set sor -
-r F , ,
hell, and sin, Which
row a - side, Christ
H f^\ p F-
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A - dam's trans g
Jt- - sus, our S
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res - sion hath wrapt
av - iour, was born
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us all in.
at this tide.
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In Bethlehem city, in Jewry it was,
Where Joseph and Mary together did pass,
And there to be taxed, with many one mo',
For Ca;sar commanded the same should be so.
Rejoice and be merry, &c.
But, when they had entered the city so far,
The number of people so mighty was there,
That Joseph and Mary, whose substance was
Could get in the city no lodging at all. [small,
Rejoice, &c.
Then they were constrain 'd in a stable to lie,
Where oxen and asses they used to tie ;
Their lodging so simple, they held it no scorn,
But against the next morning our Saviour was
born. Rejoice, fire,
8 B
756
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
The King of all Glory to the world being
brought, [wrought ;
Small store of fine linen to wrap him was
When Mary had swaddled her young Son so
sweet,
Within an ox manger she laid him to sleep.
Rejoice, &c.
Then God sent an Angel from heaven so high,
To certain poor Shepherds in fields where they
And bid them no longer in sorrow to stay, [lie,
Because that our Saviour was born on this day.
Rejoice, &c.
Then presently after, the Shepherds did spy
A number of Angels appear in the sky,
Who joyfully talked, and sweetly did sing,
To God be all Glory, our Heavenly King.
Rejoice, &c.
Three certain Wise Princes, they thought it
most meet
To lay their rich off'rings at our Saviour's feet ;
Then the Shepherds consent, and to Bethlehem
did go,
And when they came thither, they found it
was so. Rejoice, &c.
THE FIRST NOWELL.
A Carol for the morning of Christmas Day; the tune from Mr. Sandys'
Collection.
Gracefully.
p b ^ r^i i > rl i p-[
-!* r F- = j H-
The first Now - ell that the
an - gels did say, Was to
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a H*
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r -i ' '
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cer - tain poor shep-herds in fields as they
lay, In fields where
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they lay, keep -ing their sheep, On a
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cold win - ter's night that
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was so deep. Now - ell, Now
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- ell, Now - ell, Now- -
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- ell, Born is the King of
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TRADITIONAL TUNES OF UNCERTAIN DATE.
757
They looked above, and there saw a star
That shone in the East, beyond them afar,
And which to the earth did give a great light,
And so it continued by day and by night.
Nowell, &c.
And by the light of that same star
Three wise men came from a country afar ;
To seek for a King it was their intent,
And to follow the star wherever it went.
Nowell, &c.
Then entered in those wise men three,
Most reverently, with bended knee,
And offered there, in his presence,
Both gold and myrrh, with frankincense.
Nowell, &c.
Between the stalls of an ox and ass,
This child there truly born he was ;
For want of bed-clothing they did him lay
All in the manger, among the hay.
Nowell, &c.
The star went before them unto the North-West, Then let us all, with one accord,
At length over Bethlehem seemed to rest,
And there did remain by night and by day,
Right over the place where Jesus Christ lay.
Nowell, &c.
The wise men did know then, assuredly,
The King whom they sought in that house must
So one enter'd in, the babe for to see, [be ;
And found him surrounded by poverty.
Nowell, &c.
Sing praises to our heavenly Lord,
That made both heaven and earth of nought,
And with his blood mankind hath bought.
Nowell, &c.
For if we, in our time, do well,
We shall be freed, in death, from hell ;
And find, instead of Satan's thrall,
A heavenly resting-place for all.
Nowell, &c.
THE BOAR'S HEAD CAROL.
From Dr. Rimbault's Little Book of Christmas Carols. This carol possesses
historical interest, as being still sung annually, on Christmas Day, at Queen's
College, Oxford.
The boar's head in hand bear I, Be-deck'd with bays and rose-ma -
_iz
~m P
I
And I pray you, my mas-ters, be mer-ry, Quot es - tis in con - vi-vi - o.
z- f . - -*t .. , -i trJ , J J_ J_ JL
^
CHORUS.
i
Ca - put a - pri de - fe - ro, Red- dens lau - des Do
- m - no.
Solo. The boar's head, as I understand, Solo. Our steward hath provided this
Is the bravest dish in all the land ; In honour of the King of Bliss ;
When thus bedeck 'd with a gay garland, Which on this day to be served is
Let us servire cantico. In regimensi atrio.
Chorus. Caput apri, &c. Chorus. Caput apri, &c.
758
ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.
The above are altered from the old words printed by Wynkin de Worde. In
his day, every one was supposed to be able to sing. Mark the difference in the
third line :
" The bore's heed in hande bring I,
With garlans gay and rosemary ;
I pray you all synge merely
Qui estis in convivio.
Caput apri defero
Reddens laudes Domino.
The bore's heed I understande,
Is the chefe servyce in this lande ;
Loke, where ever it be fande
Servite cum cantico.
Caput apri, <fcc.
Be gladde, lordes, bothe more and lasse,
To chere you all this Christmasse,
For this hath ordeyned our stewarde,
The bore's heed with mustarde.
Caput apri ; &c."
APPENDIX.
CONTAINING ADDITIONAL REMARKS, &c.
p. 4. ALDHELM, ABBOT OF MALMSBURY. The first specimen of musical notation
given by the learned Abbot Gerbert, in his De Cantu et Musica Sacra, a prima
ecclesice cetate (i. 202), is to a poem by St. Aldhelm, in Latin hexameters, in praise of
virginity. This was written for the use of Anglo-Saxon nuns. The manuscript from
which it is taken is, or was, in the monastery of St. Blaise, in the Black Forest, and
Gerbert dates it as of the ninth or tenth century. It contains various poems of
St. Aldhelm, all of which are with music, and the Paschale Carmen of Sedulius, one
of the early Irish Christians, which is without music. Many very early English
and Irish manuscripts were, without doubt, taken to Germany by the English and
Irish priests, who assisted in converting the Germans to Christianity. St. Boniface,
" the apostle of Germany," and first Archbishop of Mentz (Mayence), who was killed
in the discharge of his duties in the year 755, was an Anglo-Saxon whose name had
been changed from Winfred to Boniface by Pope Gregory II. " Boniface seems
always to have had a strong prejudice in favour of the purity of the doctrines of the
church of his native country, as they had been handed down by St. Augustine ; in
points of controversy he sought the opinions of the Anglo-Saxon bishops, even in
opposition to those inculcated by the pope ; and he sent for multitudes of Anglo-
Saxons, of both sexes, to assist him in his labours." (Biog. Brit. Lit., i. 315.) He
placed English nuns over his monastic foundations, and selected his bishops and abbots
from among his countrymen. His successor in the Archbishoprick was also an
Englishman.
To revert to St. Aldhelm Faricius (a foreign monk of Malmsbury). who wrote his
life about the year 1100, tells us that he exercised himself daily in playing upon
the various musical instruments then in use, whether with strings, pipes, or any other
variety by which melody could be produced. The words are, " Musicse autem artis
omnia instrumenta quae fidibus vel fistulis aut aliis varietatibus melodise fieri possunt,
et memoria tenuit et in cotidiano usui habuit." (Faricius, Col. 140, vo.) The anec-
dote of Aldhelm's stationing himself on the bridge in the character of a glee -man or
minstrel, to arrest the attention of his countrymen who were in the habit of hurrying
home from church when the singing was over, instead of waiting for the exhortation,
or sermon ; and of his singing poetry of a popular character to them in order to induce
them gradually to listen to more serious subjects, was derived by William of Malms-
bury from an entry made by King Alfred in his manual or note-book. Aldhelm died
760 APPENDIX.
in 705, and King Alfred in 901, yet William of Malmsbury, who flourished about
1140, tells us that one of the "trivial songs" to which Alfred alludes as written
by Aldhelm for one of these occasions, was still sung by the common people. 3 The
literary education of youth, even of the upper classes, in Anglo-Saxon times, was
limited to the being taught to commit the songs and literature of their country to
memory. Every one of gentle blood was instructed in "harp and song," but it was
only thought necessary for those who were to be priests or minstrels to be taught to
read and write.
p. 4. ST. DUNSTAN. Osbern, the monk of Canterbury, who wrote the life of Dun-
stan soon after 1070, says that when a boy of fifteen, he was a great favorite at the
Court of King Athelstan, on account of his various accomplishments, especially for his
skill in music. That when " he saw the King and his nobles weary with labouring on
the affairs of state, he cheered them all by singing and playing on the harp and other
instruments." b One of the stories related of him is that he had an enchanted harp,
which performed tunes without the agency of man, when hung against a wall, a thing
by no means impossible in houses that would not keep out the wind. He was requested
by a lady to assist in designing ornaments for a handsome stole. Dunstan, as usual,
carried his harp with him (sumpsit secum cytharam suam, quam lingua paterna
hearpan vocamus), and when he entered the apartment of the ladies, he hung it beside
the wall ; and in the midst of their work they were astonished by strains of excellent
music which issued from the instrument, (Uridferth, fol. 70, vo.)
p. 6, 1. 4. THE ANGLO-SAXON FIDDLE OR FITHELE. As I observe that M. Fe*tis,
in his HechercJies Historiques et Critiques sur Vorigine et les transformations des
" " Nativae quoque linguae non negligebat carmina; tympanum is a musical instrument made of the skin of
adeo ut, teste libro Elfredi de quo superius dixi, nulla an animal, inflated, having two pipes in the lip and one
unquam estate par ei fuit quispiam, poesim Anglicam in the neck." If by "in the lips" the lips of the animal
posse facere, tantum componere, eadem apposite vel are intended, and the pipe in the neck was at the back,
canere vel dicere. Denique coramemorat Elfridus carmen ready for the lips of the player, the tympanum of the
triviale, quod adhuc vulgo cantitatur, Aldhelmus fecisse ; tenth century probably resembled an instrument depicted
adjiciens causam qua probat rationabiliter tantum virum in Gerbert's De Cantu, Vol. 2, Tab. xxxiv., No. 22, where
his quae videntur frivola institisse : populum eo tempore a man holds up a pigskin, blowing in at the back of the
semi-barbarum, parum divinis -sermonibus intentum, neck, and having his arms on the sides, ready to squeeze
statim cantatis missis domos cursitare solitum ; ideoque out the wind. This pig, however, has only one pipe in
sanctum virum super pontem qui rura et urbem continuat, the lips.
abeuntibus se opposuisse obicem, quasi artem cantandi There is a difficulty in translating the names of several
professum. Eo plus quam hoc commento, sensim inter instruments which come to us from the Latin, and to the
ludicra verbis scripturarum insertis, cives ad sanitatem Latin from the Greek. "We have to consider not only the
reduxisse ; qui si severe et cum excommunicatione time, but also the country of the writer. In a Latin
agendum putasset, profecte profecisset nihil." (Biog* Psalter of the eighth century, with Anglo-Saxon inter-
Srit. Lit., i. 215.) lineation (Vesp., A. 1, Cotton Coll.), we find the instru-
b The passage is " Iterum cum videret dominum regem merits mentioned in the 150th psalm translated thus
saecularibus curisfatigatum,psallebat in timphano sivein "in tympano in limpanan," "in sono tube homes,"
cithara, sive alio quolibet musici generis instrumento, "in psalterio hearpan,'" "in cithara citran," "in
quo facto tarn regis quam omnium corda principum ex- organo organan," "incymbalis cymbalan." "Incoro"
hilarabat." (Osbern, Vit. Dunst., p. 94.) I have not is there rendered as " by many people " not, as some-
attempted to translate " in timphano" in the above ex- times, a musical instrument. If, however, we go from the
tract, for although commonly rendered " timbrel, tabor, eighth to the tenth century, we find in the manuscript
or drum," I believe a kind of bagpipe is here intended. above quoted (Tib., c. vi.), " Corus est pellis simplex cum
Taking an English manuscript of the tenth century duobus cicutis," and a delineation of the instrument, a
(Tiberius, c. vi., in the Cotton Collection), we find skin stretched like a drum-head in the curve formed by
41 Tympanum pellis pillacis est inflata, abens calamos duos two pipes, evidently intended for percussion, and not for
in labiis et unum in collo." The meaning of "pillacis" inflation. In the fifteenth century, we find, "chorus, a
is not very clear, but between "pilax," a catskin, and crowde, an instrument of musyke."
"pilosus," hairy, the passage maybe translated, "The
ORIGIN OF THE FIDDLE OR VIOLIN.
761
instruments a archet (prefixed to Antoine Stradivari, 8vo., Paris, 1856), gives no
examples of instruments of the violin kind of such early dates as we have in England,
and as my account will differ in many essential points from his, I am tempted first to
reproduce an Anglo-Saxon " fithele," from a manuscript of the tenth century in the
British Museum (Cotton MSS., Tiberius, c. vi.), although it has been accurately copied
by Strutt, and was published in his Sports and Pastimes of the People of England.
Here we find the four strings and the bow. The bridge is not shown in the ma-
nuscript, but as bridges had certainly been in use for two centuries on other instru-
ments, there can be no doubt that it had one. M. Fe"tis remarks, very justly, that the
bridge is frequently omitted in early drawings and sculptures (although to be found
in others of corresponding dates), and even in books of the sixteenth century. Some
draughtsmen were less exact in detail than others.
The bent sides of the fiddle seem to have been introduced for the purpose of holding
this instrument between the knees. We find them so formed, and held between the
knees, in sculpture of the twelfth century, yet not greatly increased in size.
The long neck is found in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and we have a
fiddle of this kind, with the body shaped like a cruth or crowd (i. e., somewhat
resembling that of a long, narrow guitar), in the brass monumental plate of Kobert
Braunch, erected at Lynn, in Norfolk, in 1364.
The use of the upper part of the finger-board is shewn in one of the sculptures on
the outside of St. John's Church, Cirencester, where the player on a fiddle with a neck
of well-proportioned length, has his left hand close to the body of the instrument, and
the bow upon the strings, as if ready to draw out the high notes. The date is between
1504 and 1522.
The history of instruments of the violin tribe is interesting, because the use of the
bow was wholly unknown to the ancients. The two earliest instruments known to
762 APPENDIX.
have been played with a bow, are the crowd and fiddle. Having made but slight
search, I have not found any drawing of the crowd or cruth of so early a date as the
above fiddle, yet the crowd was in all probability the precursor of the fiddle. The
former is mentioned as an English instrument by Venantius, an Italian poet, who
wrote in the year 566, and about 570. In his elegiac poem to Loup, Due de Cham-
pagne, he thus addresses him:
" Romanusque lyra plaudat tibi, Barbaras harpa,
Grsecus achilliaca, chrotta Britanna canat."
Venantii Fortunati Poemata, edit. 1617, 4to., p. 169.
" Let the Roman applaud thee with the lyre, the Barbarian with the harp, the Greek
with the cithara (?), let the British crowd sing? The last phrase is particularly
expressive, as the crowd is the only instrument of those above named, that could sus-
tain its tone. There are some differences of opinion as to the origin of the word.
Crowd, according to Spelman, is " crotta, fidicula Britannica." Although Skinner
derives it from the Anglo-Saxon word, cruth, which signifies a crowd in the sense of
a multitude, Nares says, " certainly from the Welsh crrvth." That instrument
remained in use in Wales within the last century. An engraving of the modern crwth
will be seen in Jones's Welsh Bards, i. 89 ; the ancient one was smaller, and had
but three instead of six strings. There were apertures in both to admit the left hand
of the player through the back, so as to enable him to press the strings down upon
the finger-board (for the distinguishing feature of the crrvth was that it had no neck) ;
yet the ancient differed from the modern in shape. The former, from and after the
eleventh century, was not unlike the body (only) of a very long and narrow-formed
Spanish guitar.
The fiddle retained its Anglo-Saxon name of Jithele, in England, for at least a
hundred and fifty years after the Norman conquest (see, for instance, Layamon's
romance of Brut) ; but the Normans, not approving the pronunciation of the " th "
(which is represented by a single letter, %, in Anglo-Saxon), omitted it, and softened
the remaining letters, fiele, into viele. The viele is included in the following descrip-
tion of minstrelsy from the Roman de Brut, a metrical chronicle of English history,
by Wace, a poet who was in great favour with our Henry II. Wace was born in
Jersey, but educated in Normandy. Tne passage is here given in two different
dialects, the one being sometimes a guide to the meaning of the other :
*' Mult ot a la cort jugl^ors, " Mult i aveit a la curt jugleurs,
Chanteors, estrumerite'ors; Chanteurs, estrumenturs ;
Mult po'issie"s o'ir chan9<>ns, Mult puissez o'ir chansons,
Rotruanges et noviax sons. Rotuenges e novels sons.
Vieleures, lais et notes, Lais de vieles, lais de rotes,
Lais de vieles, lais de rotes ; Vielers lais de notes j
Lais de harpe et de fretiax ; Lais de harpe, lais de frestelles ;
Lyre, tympres et chalemiax, Lyres, cympes, chalemeles,
Symphonies, psalte"rions, Symphonies, psalterions,
Monacordes, cymbes, chorons. Monacordes, cymbes, corons.
Asez i ot tresgite"ors, Assez i out tregeteurs,
Joeresses et joe"ors ; Joeresses et jugleurs ;
Li un dient contes et fables, Li un dient contes e fables," &c.
Aliquant demandent dez et tables." (MSS. Cotton Vitellius, A. x.)
The instrument which Savoyard boys play about the streets of London (and here
called hurdy-gurdy), is now known in France by the name of vielle. However, M. F6tis
THE INVENTION ATTRIBUTED TO AN ENGLISHMAN. 763
appeals to the proofs collected by Roquefort to establish the fact that in the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries vielle signified an instrument of the violin kind, and quotes
a song by Colin Muset, a minstrel of the thirteenth century, who tells of his going to
a lady in the meadow to sing to her with " vielle et Varchet" (Biographic Uni-
verselle des Musiciens, vi. 526.) The ancient hurdy-gurdy (in Latin, organistrum)
had a handle to turn a wheel, but no bow. M. Fetis also states that " the author
of an anonymous treatise on musical instruments, to which it appears impossible to
affix a later date than the thirteenth century," attributes the invention of the " viole
a quatre cordes " to Albinus, and gives the tuning of the instrument, as well as a very
imperfect drawing. The tuning was by fourths, the lowest note being the A below
tenor 0, then rising to D, G, and treble C. The title of this treatise is " De diversis
monochordis, tetrachordis, pentachordis, exachordis, eptachordis, octochordis, tyc., ex
quibus diversa formantur instrumenta musicce, cumjiguris instrumentorum" It is
included in a manuscript collection of works on music, in the library of the University
of Ghent, No. 171.
M. Fetis asks "who was this Albinus?" There can be very little doubt that the
Albinus, to whom the invention is attributed, was Alcuin, who died in 804.* He
assumed the name of Flaccus Albinus in his writings, it being the fashion at the
Court of Charlemagne for scholars to take literary names and surnames. Alcuin
first met Charlemagne at Parma on his return from Rome in 781, and finally
quitted England for the Court of Charlemagne in 792, taking with him a number of
other English ecclesiastics. Among his works was a treatise on the liberal arts ; but
of this only Grammar, Rhetoric, and the opening of Logic, are extant. The portion
containing Music, Arithmetic, Geometry, and Astronomy, is supposed to be lost.
Albinus composed most of his writings at Tours, and, when he founded the monastic
school there (which produced so many remarkable scholars in the following age), he sent
\ mission to England to procure books for its library. It was probably through his
treatise, De Artibus liberalibus, that Albinus obtained the credit of the invention.
From viele, the transition was easy to vielle, viola, viole, and viol ; but, hitherto, the
use of these words has not been traced abroad before the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries. Violin is a diminutive of later date, probably not earlier than the sixteenth
century. Galilei, who wrote on ancient and modern music in 1582, speaks of the
viola da braccio, of the viola da gamba, and of the violone (viol for the arm, viol for
ihe legs, and the great bass viol), but does not mention the violino. It could not,
therefore, have taken its proper rank in Italy at that time. He says the viola da
hraccio was called, " not many years before," lira. We had violins (by name) on the
English stage in 1561 (see the play of Gorboduc, or Ferrex and Porrex), and they
were included in Queen Elizabeth's band in the same year. In 1561, the violin -players
in the Royal band cost 230 6s. 8d. (MSS. Lansdowne, No. 5), and in 1571, they
received 325 15s. (MSS. Cotton, Vesp., c. xiv.)
In Monteverde's opera, Eurydice (1607), where each character is accompanied by
different instruments, Hope sings to two violini piccoli alia Francese. This is the
iirst use that has been traced to the Italian stage ; nevertheless, the Italians soon became
famous for making the best instruments, not only from their skill as workmen, but also
Irom being favored by their climate in not requiring so much glue, and in the facility
for obtaining the best and dryest wood.
There was another Albinus (Albin, Abbot of Canter- but although Bede styles him " vir per omnia doctissi-
liury), who died in 732. He was also an Englishman, and mus," we have no record of his having written upon
llede's principal assistant in his Ecclesiastical History : music, nor was he, probably, much known out of England.
764 APPENDIX.
Baltazarini, an Italian musician, and native of Piedmont, is said to have been " le
meilleur violon " of his time. He was taken to France by Marshal de Brissac in
1577, and appointed director of music to Catherine de Medecis. It is as difficult,
however, to distinguish between viola da braccio and violin in French history as in
English ; because, at least during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, instruments
of all sizes were included under the name of violin. Mersenne speaks of the French
royal band of " twenty-four violons," although the instruments were of four sizes, just
as Ben Jonson, or, as in the time of Charles II., we called our royal band " four-and-
twenty fiddlers."
In the Promptorium Parvulorum, the date of which is about 1440, "fydyll" and
"fyyele" (viol) are Latinized " viella, fidicina, vitula," while " crowde, instrument
of musyke," is translated " chorus." In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the
names of crowd, fiddle, and violin, were often indiscriminately applied to the same
instrument.
In Spain, the viol can have been but little known in the first half of the sixteenth
century, for Juan Bermudo, who published a folio volume on musical instruments in
1555, does not include any one in which the bow was employed. The Spanish vihuelas
or viguelas were guitars, distinguished from the guitarra by having six strings instead
of four. Bermudo says, " no es otra cosa esta guitarra sino una vihuela quitada la
sexta y la prima cuerda." The " gitterons which are called Spanish vialles," among
the musical instruments of our Henry VIII., were, no doubt, Spanish mhuelas, in all
respects the same as the modern Spanish guitar.
The German word, bratsche, for tenor, is evidently an abbreviation of viola da
braccio.
I will not follow M. Fetis in his newly-adopted Eastern theory for the bow. The
only evidence he adduces is its present use in the East, and the primitive form of
Eastern instruments ; coupled with a tradition among Buhddist priests, that one of
the instruments to which it is now applied was " invented by Ravana, King of Ceylon,
five thousand years before the Christian era." This is a tolerably lengthy " tradition."
I would ask, however, " how comes it that the bow was unknown to the Greeks,
Romans, and other nations ? Did not Alexander the Great conquer India and Persia ?
and were not those countries better known to the ancients than to the moderns until
within the last three hundred years ?" The Spaniards derived their instruments
from the Moors, but the bow was not among them. Once seen, it is an easy thing to
imitate, and the power of imitation is by no means confined to the West.
The earliest drawing of the bow, now extant, is probably that which was copied by
Gerbert into his De Cantu, ii. 138, plate 32, for an instrument of the fiddle kind with
one string. It is taken from the same manuscript as the Cythara Anglica (a well-
formed harp with twelve strings), which is beside it. To this manuscript M. Fetis
assigns the date of " commencement of the ninth century." Gerbert places it much
earlier.
p. 7. CHANSON ROLAND. It is a curious coincidence that this tune is exactly fitted
to the Anglo-Norman romance, Chanson de Roland, by Turold, which, according to
Mr. T. Wright (author of the Biographia JBritannica Literaria), " was undoubtedly
intended to be recited with the accompaniment of the minstrel's harp." Dr. Crotch
first printed the air in the Appendix to the Specimens of various hinds of Music,
therefore many years before this romance was published. Mr. Wright dates the ma-
nuscript in the Bodleian Library, " as old as the latter half of the twelfth century,"
HYMNS TO POPULAR TUNES, ETC. 765
and the language induces him to believe that the author flourished in England about
the time of King Stephen. The following four lines form part of the narrative of
the death of Roland, and will serve as a specimen of the poem :
" Co sent Rollans que s'espe"e li tolt, * Men escientre ! tu n'ies mie des noz.'
Uverit les oilz, si li ad dit un mot : Tient 1'olifan que unques perdre ne volt." . . .
Biog. Brit. Lit., ii. 122.
Dr. Crotch may have obtained the tune from one of the musical manuscripts in the
Bodleian Library, or from Douce, the antiquary, who was possessed of some of very
early date. (I have only seen the musical manuscripts in the Music School at Oxford.)
As Dr. Crotch says, "probably a French tune," I suppose he derived it from an
English source.
p. 9. THE NORMAN CONQUEST. We may date the custom of singing hymns to
secular tunes from this time, if, indeed, it may not be carried back to the time of
St. Aldhelm. William of Malmsbury records of Thomas, Archbishop of York
(created in 1070), that " whenever he heard any new secular song or ballad sung by
the minstrels, he immediately composed sacred parodies on the words, to be sung to
the same tune :
" Nee cantu nee voce minor, multa ecclesiastica composuit carmina : si quis in
auditu ejus arte joculatoria aliquid vocale sonaret, statim illud in divinis laudes
effigiabat."
In a contribution to Notes and Queries (ii. 385), Mr. James Graves gives a curious
list of eight songs similarly parodied, in The Red Book of Ossory, a manuscript of
the fourteenth century, which is preserved in the archives of that see. Six of the
songs are English (there are two parodies upon one of them), and the remaining two
are Anglo-Norman. The Latin hymns seem to have been written by Richard de
Ledrede, Bishop of Ossory from 1318 to 1360. The names of the six English songs
are as follows, the spelling being here modified :
1 . Alas ! how should I syng, yloren is my playinge.
How should I with that olde man, )
_ . , . [ Sweetest of all, singe.
To leven and let my leman. )
2. Have mercie on me, frere, barefoot that I go.
3. Do, do, nightingale, syng ful mery.
Shall I never for thine love longer kary.
4. Have good day, my leman, &c.
5. Gaveth me no garland of greene,
But it ben of wythones [withies wyllowes ?] yrought.
6. Hey, how the chevaldoures woke all nyght.
p. 17, 1. 2. POPE VITALIAN SENT SINGERS INTO KENT. This was to secure con-
formity with Rome in the performance of the ritual throughout the year, and was
rendered necessary by the state of musical notation at the time. The points, accents,
hooks, and up-and-down strokes written over the words (called neuma), being without
lines or spaces, were a very uncertain guide for any to learn by, although they would
serve to refresh the memory of those who had received oral instruction.
p. 18. AIRS AND GRACES OF CHURCH SINGERS. A still more curious description
of Church singers at this period will be found in the note commencing at p. 404.
This was written by Ethelred or Ailred about twenty years before the attack upon
them by John of Salisbury, but I did not discover the passage in time for insertion
in the order of chronology.
766 APPENDIX.
p. 25. SINGING IN ANCIENT TIMES." In 1279, Roger de Mortimer held jousts at
Kenilworth, and set out from London to Kenilworth, with a hundred knights well
armed, and as many ladies going before, singing joyful songs." (Smith's Lives of
the Berkeley Family, edited by Fosbroke, 4to., 1821, p. 103.)
p. 31. THE BEVERLEY MINSTRELS. In the Appendix to the Report of the Com-
missioners on the public Records (Inns of Court, p. 388), the Rev. Joseph Hunter
makes the following remarks on " a manuscript on vellum of the half folio form,
containing several early English Metrical Romances, in a hand of the fourteenth
century," in the Lincoln's Inn Library : " On examining the covers attentively,
I discovered that there had been used in binding, a large piece of a document relating
to the Hospital of St. John at Beverley ; and, connecting this with the fact that at
Beverley there was in the times when this manuscript was written a noted fraternity
of minstrels, a probability is raised that the contents of this book were originally
translated for their use, and that the manuscript may, without much hazard of mis-
leading, be called hereafter THE BOOK OP THE MINSTRELS OP BEVERLEY." Mr.
Hunter also refers to Lansdowne MSS,, No. 896, for memoranda respecting the Corpus
Christi plays at Beverley (at fol. 157), and for " the orders of the ancient company
or fraternity of Minstrels at Beverley" (fol. 180). The orders are only of the year
1555, but they recite that it hath been a very ancient custom, out of the memory
of divers ages of men, that all, or the more part of the minstrels serving any man or
woman of honour or worship, or city or town corporate, or otherwise, between the
rivers of Trent and Tweed, have been accustomed yearly to resort to this town and
borough of Beverley on Rogation days, and then to choose yearly one Alderman of
the Minstrels, with stewards and deputies authorized to take names and to receive
customable duties of the brethren of the said minstrels' fraternity. One of the
orders issued in 1555, was that no miller, shepherd, or husbandman playing upon pipe
or other instrument, should sue to perform at any wedding or merry-making out of
his own parish, as this would interfere with the privileges of the corporation. The
minstrels' column is in St. Mary's Church, Beverley, but there are equally curious
figures of musicians over the columns of the Minster. All have been copied in
vol. ii. of Carter's Specimens of Ancient Sculpture and Painting (fol. 1786), and
are there accompanied with descriptions of the instruments by Douce.
p. 33. ROTE. When I gave hurdy-gurdy as the modern word for rote, I hastily
adopted the definition of Dr. Burney, who had " not the least doubt but that the
instrument called a rote, so frequently mentioned by our Chaucer, as well as the old
French poets, was the same as the modern vielle, and had its name from rota, the
^vheel with which its tones were produced." (History, ii. 270, in note.) I am now
convinced that this is a mistake, that the instrument had no wheel, and therefore
could not have been derived from the Latin rota.
The rote was in use among the Anglo-Saxons, and in their language " r6t" and
" rott" signified " cheerful rejoicing." There is no mistaking the character of the
instrument after the description given of it by Notker in the tenth century, and that
description agrees with all others that I have found, down to the times of Chaucer
and Spenser.
The first notice of the rote is in the correspondence of two Englishmen in the
eighth century. We can fix the date of the letter within twenty years, as it was
BEVERLEY MINSTRELS, ROTE.
767
written after the death of Bede, 735, and before the death of Boniface, the apostle of
Germany, 755. Lull, who was created a bishop by Boniface, had written from Ger-
many to England for some of the minor works of Bede, and the letter is in answer to
that request. Abbot Gutberct sends him Bede's life of St. Cuthbert in prose and
verse, and excuses himself for not sending more because the winter had been so severe
in cold, ice, and tempests of wind and rain, that the hands of the young men were
retarded. He asks Lull if it will be possible to send two young men to the monastery,
one who can make glass vessels well, and the other skilful in playing the rote. He
reminds him that he had sent to him a present of a gown made of otter-skins, and twenty
knives for the fraternity abroad, six years before, and that the receipt of them had not
been acknowledged. He hopes his present request will not be treated as trivial. The
passage of the letter in which the rote is mentioned is as follows : " Truly it delights
me (meaning " it will delight me") to have a harper who can play upon that kind of harp
\thich we call rotta, because I have an instrument, but no one skilful in the craft."*
The abbot here added the Anglo-Saxon name, because the Latin word cithara
answered for several instruments, and would not define which of them he required.
Among the musical instruments which are copied from a manuscript of the ninth
century, formerly in the monastery of St. Blaise, representations will be found of the
"Cythara Anglica," and of the " Cythara Teutonica." (Gerbert's De Cantu, ii.,
tab. 32.) The latter agrees completely with the descriptions given of the rote, and
we find the same instrument depicted in Anglo-Saxon psalters in and after the eighth
oentury. The following is a representation of King David playing upon one of these,
from an Anglo-Saxon illumination of the eighth century (Vesp., A. i., Cotton MSS.) :
This letter is printed among the Epistolte S. Bonifacii
Martyris, Primi Moguntini Archiepiscopi, Germanorum
Apostoli, per Nicolaum Serarium, 4to. Moguutiae, 1629.
Epist. 89, p. 123-4. " Delectat me quoque cytharistam
habere, qui possit cytharisare in cithara quam nos appel-
lamus rotfte, quiacitharamhabeo, etartificemnonhabeo."
(Here he writes rottce instead of rotta, and so in the fol-
lowing passage.) " Si grave not sit, et istum quoque
mea: dispositione mitte." The abbot says he had lived
forty-three years in the monastery, but evidently he had
forgotten his Latin grammar.
768 APPENDIX.
Notker, who wrote a tract on Church Music in one of the Teutonic dialects, towards
the close of the ninth century, says that the rote, like the lyre, had seven strings for
the seven notes of the scale, " andero lirun unde andero rotun io siben sieten."
(Gerbert's Scriptores, i. 96.) Another Notker, a monk of St. Gall, who wrote in
Latin ahout a century later, says that the ancient psalterium was in the form of the
Greek A, and that it had ten strings. He considered this triangular shape as em-
blematic of the Trinity, and complains that, after the instrument had been adopted
by singers and players (ludicratores) for their uses, they added to the number of
strings, altered the form to suit their convenience, and, giving it the barbarous name
of rotta, destroyed its mystical signification.*
In Chaucer's description of his mendicant friar, he says : " Wei couthe he synge
and playe on a rote ;" and, although many lines intervene, yet, when he adds " And
in his harpyng, whan that he had suny," it is a continuation of the portrait, and no
other instrument has been named.
The resemblance of the rote to the ancient lyre will account for Spenser's having
applied the term of " Phoebus's rote" to the lyre of Phoebus in the Fairy Queen.
Finally, there is no old authority for giving the Latin name of rota to the hurdy-
gurdy. Mersenne and Kircher style it Lyra Mendicorum, and in the manuscript
" of the ninth century" quoted by Gerbert, it is entitled Organistrum.
p. 35, note b. SHAWM. The different descriptions of the shawm may be reconciled
by the fact of their having been made of various sizes.
p. 37, 1. 28. NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD. The words of the Statute are " Post
tempus prandii aut cense liceat gratia recreationis in aula in cantilenis et aliis solatiis
honestis moram facere condecentem," &c. This does not prove the singing of part-
music.
p. 52, 1. 10. OPHELIA'S SONG. The burden, " you must sing down, adown, an
you call him adown-a," will be found almost verbatim in a ballad commencing
" When as King Edgar did govern this land, And in the strength of his years he did stand,
Adown, adown, down, down, down, Call him down-a."
See Evans's Old Ballads, ii. 22, 1810, or Old Ballads, ii. 28, 1727.
p. 66. As I WALKED THE WOODS so WILD. This is parodied in Andro Hart's
Compendium : " I am woe for their wolves so wylde."
p. 76. WHO'S THE FOOL NOW ? Archie Armstrong, Charles the First's jester,
quoted this song when he tauntingly asked Archbishop Laud " Who's the fool now ?"
after the stool had been thrown at the dean's head, for reading the English liturgy in
Edinburgh. It is also quoted by Dryden, in his play of Sir Martin Mar-all.
p. 77. BRANSLE, OR BRAULE. The following description of this dance is from
the Dictionnaire de Danse [par Ch. Compan], Paris, 8vo., 1787 : " Branle est une
danse par ou commencent tons les Bals, ou plusieurs personnes dansent en Rond en se
" Sciendum est quod antiquum psalterium, instru- suum opus traxerant, formam utique ejus et figuram
mentum decachordum, utique erat, in hac videlicet deltse commoditate suae habilem fecerunt, et plures chordas
litterae figura, multiplicitermystica. Sed post quam illud, annectentes et nomine barbarico rottam appellantes,
symphoniaci quidam et ludicratores, ut quidam ait, ad mysticam illam Trinitatis formam transmutaverunt."
BRANSLE, TRENCHMORE, LUSTY GALLANT, ETC.
769
tenant par la main et ee donnant un branle continuel et concerte*, avec des pas conve-
nables, selon la difference des air qu'on joue alors. Les Branles consistent en trois pas
et un pied-joint qui se font en quatre mesures, ou coups d'archet, qu'on disoit autrefois
battement de tambourin. Quand ils sont repete's deux fois, ce sont des Branles
doubles ; au commencement on danse des Branles simples, et puis le Branle gui, par
deux mesures ternaires, et il est ainsi appelle* parce qu'on a toujours un pied en 1'air."
Thoinot Arbeau gives " Les Branles du Poictu, qui se dansent par mesure ternaire,
en allant toujours a gauche," also " Branles d' Ecosse et de Bretagne : on appelle
ceuxci le Triory." He also tells us that " Les danses aux chansons sont des espces
de Branles."
Here we have it clearly laid down that the Bransle de Poictu, or Bransle double,
is in triple time, and so by Morley, in his Introduction, 1597 and 1611 ; therefore, the
name of Bransle de Poictu is improperly given to " We be three poor Mariners,"
in the Skene Manuscript, unless it be in the sense of " une danse a chanson."
p. 83. TRENCHMORE. This is mentioned in Holinshed's Description of Ireland,
c. 2 : " And trulie they suit a Divine as well as for an ass to twang Quipassa on a
harpe or gitterne, or for an ape to friske Trenchmoore in a pair of buskins and a
doublet." In Pilk to purge Melancholy, i. 51, 1699, the song, " Willy, prithee go
to bed, for thou wilt have a drowsy head," is to a version of Trenchmore.
p. 87. QUOTH JOHN TO JOAN. The version of the words printed with the tune is
by D'Urfey. See his New Collection of Songs and Poems, 8vo., 1683, p. 48. The
old ballad of " John wooinge of Jone " was entered at Stationers' Hall in January,
1591-2.
Puttenham, in his Art of English Poesie, quotes a song " in our interlude called
The Wooer, where the country clown came and wooed a young maid of the city, and
being agrieved to come so oft and not have his answer, said to the old nurse very
impatiently :
Wooer. ' Iche pray you, good mother, tell our young dame,
Whence I am come, and what is my name ;
I cannot come a-wooing every day.
(Quoth the Nurse.) They be lubbers, not lovers, that so use to say.' "
The copy of " I cannot come every day to woo" in the Pepys Collection (iii. 134)
consists of fourteen stanzas.
p. 91. LUSTY GALLANT. There is a "proper dittie" to this tune in the Gorgious
Gallery of Gallant Inventions, 1578, and many more ballads were sung to
it than I have space to enumerate. Holinshed, in his Chronicles of England,
i. 290, speaks of lusty gallant as a newly devised colour: "I might here name
a sort of hues devised for the nonce, wherewith to please fantastical heads."
Among these are " pease -porridge-tawney, popinjay-blue, lusty-gallant, the devil in
the hedge, and such like."
p. 102. THE LUTE. There are several other derivations proposed for the word,
" lute." Gerbert says from la ut, and considers the name to have been given to sig-
nify its extended compass. M. F6tis, who looks only to the East, derives it from eoud,
an instrument now in use among the Arabs.
770 APPENDIX.
p. 107. DELONEY'S BALLADS. I have not seen a copy of " John for the King,"
but it was entered at Stationers' Hall on 24th Oct., 1603, as " A newe ballet, called
John for the King, to the tune of Hey downe derrye" Deloney's " Repent, England,
repent," is perhaps " England's new Bellman," a copy of which is in the Roxburghe
Collection, iii. 222. It begins, "Awake, awake, O England," and the burden is
" Repent, therefore, England, the day it draweth near," &c. It may also be the
ballad of " The great Earthquake," a copy of which is contained in a manuscript
of the time of James I. in Mr. Payne Collier's possession. The former is to the
tune of man in desperation, the latter is in the same metre as the ballad on the
burning of St. Paul's steeple (quoted at p. 117), and, in all probability, to the same
tune. It commences
" Take warning, London, and beware, It is a sign
By what you late have seen : Of wrath divine,
O let it fill your minds with care, A warning to all subjects of the Queen."
The Earthquake I do mean.
There are twelve stanzas, and the eleventh begins thus :
" Again I say repent, repent,
Repent, O England, now."
p. 113. Row WELL, YE MARINERS. The tune is also in Pills to purge Melancholy,
ii. 195, 1707, to a song called " John and Joan."
p. 114. LORD WILLOUGHBY. Perhaps the name of Rowland, given to this tune
in Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book, is derived from a ballad commencing " Now
welcome, neighbour Rowland," which is in the same metre as that of " Lord Wil-
loughby." A copy of this Rowland is in the Pepys Collection, i. 210, " printed for
J. Trundle." It is entitled " News, good and new ! to the tune of 20 a yeere."
p. 117. I AM THE DUKE OF NORFOLK, OR PAUL'S STEEPLE. I have omitted one
very popular ballad which was sung to this tune. Many half-sheet copies of it were
printed, with the music, during the last century, and it is still remembered. It
commences : " There was a little man, and he woo'd a little maid,
And he said " Little maid, will you wed, wed, wed ?
I have little more to say than, will you ? aye or nay ?
For little said is soonest mended-ed."
There cannot, I think, be a doubt that the Irish Cruiskeen Lawn, and the Scotch
John Anderson, my Jo, are mere modifications of this very old English tune. I have
already said that our Country Dances travelled not only over Scotland and Ireland,
but over all Europe ; and this tune has remained in constant and popular use from the
early part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth down to the present time. John Anderson,
my Jo, is first found in the Skene Manuscript, and if any one should wish to be assured
of the identity of the two airs, he has only to look to that copy, printed in Dauney's
Ancient Scottish Melodies, p. 219. Dauney greatly exaggerates the age of the Skene
Manuscript when he dates it in the time of our James I., for it includes an English
Country Dance that first appeared in 1698, and the writing alone would sufficiently
disprove his idea of its antiquity. Stenhouse asserts that the words of John Ander-
son, my Jo, are preserved in Bishop Percy's old manuscript, written as early, if not be-
fore the year 1560. Here the date of the manuscript, and its containing John
PACKINGTON'S POUND, DULCINA, ETC. 771
Anderson, my Jo, are Stenhonse's inventions. The " tradition" of the words bearing
reference to the seven sacraments of the Church of Rome has already been sufficiently
refuted. In the first edition of Percy's Iteliques t the number of " bairns" was five,
and the subsequent alteration to seven was " a new reading communicated by a friend,
who thinks by the seven bairns are meant the Seven Sacraments." The words of John
Anderson printed by Percy seem uncouth to an Englishman, on account of the use of
" z" for " y," but that is no proof of antiquity, for the Scotch still employ the one
for the other.
When Moore appropriated the air under the name of Cruiskeen Lawn, he was
under the misconception that the terminations were peculiarly characteristic of Irish
music. For the same reason, and with equal impropriety, he included " The pretty
girl of Derby, 0" among his Irish Melodies. I will here only remark that Bunting
(a far higher authority for Irish music) rejects both these airs, and refer the reader
for further remarks to " Characteristics of English National Airs," where I shall
endeavour to invert Moore's position.
p. 123. PACKINGTON'S POUND. The ballad which Shakespeare is said to have
written on Sir Thomas Lucy was evidently intended for the tune of Packingtotis
Pound. See Dyce's Shakespeare, vol. i., p. xxii.
Instances of the use of the tune at later dates than any I have cited, will be found
among the jingles of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, such as his election-squib
upon Bubb Doddington, " A grub upon Bubb," beginning :
" When the Knights of the Bath by King George were created ; "
also in The Convivial Songster, 1782. It is there printed to a song commencing,
"Ye maidens and wives, and young widows, rejoice."
p. 14:2. DULCINA. The tune may perhaps be carried a stage further back under
another name. In the registers of the Stationers' Company, under the date of May 22,
1C) 15, there is an entry transferring the right of publication from one printer to another,
and it is described as " A Ballett of Dulcina, to the tune of Forgoe me nowe, come to
me soone.
p. 14:7. JOHN, COME KISS ME NOW. This tune is also included in Musick's Delight
on the Cithren, 1666.
Sir W. Davenant alludes to it in his play of Love and Honour; J. Phillips
(Milton's nephew), in his translation of Don Quixote, 1687, p. 278; and the Hon.
Koger North, in his Memoires of Musick. North says, prophetically, " The time
muy come when some of the present celebrated musick will be as much in contempt
as John, come kiss me now, now, now, and perhaps with as much reason as any is found
to the contrary at present." (4to., 184:6, p ; 92.)
When I said that the tune of John, come kiss me, had not " hitherto been found in
any old Scotch copy," I should have excepted a manuscript of music for the base
viol, which was in the possession of the late Andrew Blaikie. This has been com-
monly quoted as of the year 1692, but I date it as not earlier than 1745. Blaikie
was possessed of two such manuscripts, and, according to Dauney's Ancient
Scottish Melodies, p. 14:3, they " were both written in the same hand, and their
respective contents arranged nearly in the same order." He says the one was dated
1633. and the other 1692. Blaikie very obligingly lent me one manuscript (having
3 c
772 APPENDIX.
then lost the other), and I translated a considerable portion of its contents. Within
the cover was written, " Lady Katharine Boyd aught this book," but I did not
observe a date of any kind, There may be " 1692" somewhere within it, but that
can have no reference to the time of the writing. " Alas ! that I came o'er the moor,"
appears there under the name of Ramsay's song, " The last time I came over the
moor," and that alone would disprove the date of 1692. The manuscript contains
a hundred and twelve tunes, of which the tenth is " New Hilland Laddie," and the
fifteenth, " God save the King."
p. 153. THE BRITISH GRENADIERS. The words of this song cannot be older than
1678, when the " Grenadier Company" was first formed, or later than the reign of
Queen Anne, when grenadiers ceased to carry hand-grenades.
p. 157. PAVAN. " Instrumental players play the Pa van faster," says Thoinot
Arbeau, "and call it the Passamezzo " Anglice, the Passing Measures* Pavan.
Puttenham says, " Songs, for secret recreation and pastime in chambers, with com-
pany or alone, were the ordinary musickes amorous ; such as might be sung with
voice, or to the lute, citheron, or harpe ; or daunced by measures as the Italian pavan
and galliard are at these daies in Princes' courts, and other places of honourable or
civil assembly." (Art of Poesie, p. 37, reprint.) Pavana, according to Italian
writers, was derived from Paduana, and not from Paw, a peacock, as I have
stated, taking Hawkins for my authority.
p. 164. DEATH AND THE LADY. This ballad is mentioned by Oliver Goldsmith
in his fourth essay : " Every man had his song, and he saw no reason why he should
not be heard as well as any of the rest : one begged to be heard while he gave Death
and the Lady in high taste," &c.
p. 171. THE GIPSIES' ROUND. Perhaps the words of this round are in Middleton's
play, The Spanish Gipsy. (Dyce's Middleton, iv. 141.) They suit the tune :
" Trip it, trip it, gipsies fine,
Shew tricks and lofty capers," &c.
p. 171. GUY OF WARWICK. Old Puttenham says, in his Art of Poesie, (t And
we ourselves, who composed this treatise, have written for pleasure a little brief
Romance or Historical Ditty, in the English tong, of the Isle of Great Britain ; in short
and long metres, and by breaches or divisions, to be more commodiously sung to the
harpe in places of assembly where the company shall be desirous to hear of old adven-
tures and valiaunces of noble knights in times past as are those of King Arthur and
his knights of the round table, Sir Bevis, of Southampton Guy of Warrviche and
others like." (Haslewood's reprint, p. 33-4.)
p. 173. LOTH TO DEPART. These words (by Dr. Donne) were also set by Orlando
Gibbons. In his copy, they commence differently : " Ah ! dear heart, why do
you rise ? "
p. 178. CRIMSON VELVET. The ballad of Constance of Cleveland, here printed
with the tune, was entered at Stationers' Hall, on the llth of June, 1603, to William
W T hite, as " Of the fayre Lady Constance of Cleveland and of her disloyall Knight;"
together with eight other ballads.
PHILLIDA FLOUTS ME, THE SPANISH LADY, ETC. 773
Martin Parker's ballad of the siege of Rochelle is included in the Pepys Collection,
i. 96, as " Rochell her yielding to the obedience of the French King, on the 28 October,
1628, after a long siege by land and sea, in great penury and want. To the tune
of In the days of old" It is subscribed " M. Parker," was " printed at London for
J. Wright," and begins " You that true Christians be." " In the days of old," from
which the tune here derives its name, has already been quoted. In Forbes' s Cantus,
1682, and in the Straloch MS., the same air is entitled " Shepherd, saw thou not my
fair, lovely Phillis ? "
p. 183. PHILLIDA FLOUTS ME. The copy of this ballad in Wit restored, 1658, is
older, and in many respects preferable to the version I have printed, which agrees
with the one in Ritson's Ancient Songs.
p. 186. THE SPANISH LADY. This ballad is quoted in Mrs. Behn's comedy, The
Rovers, or The banished Cavaliers, and in Richard Brome's Northern Lasse.
p. 187. THE JOVIAL TINKER. The song in Robin G-oodfellow, " to the tune of
The Jovial Tinker" was, no doubt, intended to be sung to Tom a Bedlam. See
further remarks upon that tune, p. 779.
p. 191. THE OXFORDSHIRE TRAGEDY. The ballad of < The Miller's advice to his
three Sons on the taking of toll" is still sung to this tune in the North of England.
A copy in the Roxburghe Collection, iii. 681, commences thus :
" There was a miller who had three sons,
And, knowing his life was almost run,
He call'd them all, and ask'd their will,
If that to them he left his mill."
The miller reproves the eldest son, and the second also, for not intending to take
toll enough, but the youngest wins his heart by saying :
" Father, you know I am your boy,
And in taking toll is all my joy :
Rather than I'd good living lack,
I'd take the whole and forswear the sack."
p. 196. UP TAILS ALL. This seems to have been Herrick's favorite tune, for he
not only wrote a song under the name, but also five more in the peculiar metre.
Of these the first is " Ceremonies for Christmas : "
" Come, bring with a noise,
My merry, merry boyes,
The Christmas log to the firing ;
While my good dame, she
Bids ye all be free,
And drink to your hearts' desiring," &c.
The second is " The hag is astride ; " the third, " The Maypole is up ; " the fourth,
" The Peter-penny ; " and the fifth, " Twelfth Night, or King and Queen." (See
Hesperides, vol. ii., 1825.)
p. 199. CHEVY CHACE. The celebrated John Locke, when secretary to the em-
bassy sent by Charles II. to the Elector of Brandenburg, wrote home a description of
the Brandenburg Church singing : " He that could not, though he had a cold, make
774 APPENDIX.
better music with a Chevy Chace over a pot of smooth ale, deserved well to pay the
reckoning, and to go away athirst." (Life of Locke, by Lord King.)
p. 204. IT WAS A LOVER AND HIS LASS. This music was composed by Morley, and
is included in " The first booke of Ayres or Little Short Songs to sing and play to the
Lute, with the Base Viole, newly published by Thomas Morley, Bacheler of Musicke,
and one of the gentlemen of Her Majestie's Royal Chappell." This collection was
" imprinted at London " by William Barley, in 1600, and dedicated to Ralph
Bosvile, Esq. (folio). An imperfect copy of this now rare book was a few years ago
in the possession of Rodd, the bookseller. Mr. Oliphant had then the opportunity of
transcribing the music of this song, and to him I am indebted for the information, and
for a copy.
p. 206. WILLOW, WILLOW. The music is included in Thomas Dallis's MS. Lute-
book, under the name of " All a greane willowe." Dallis was a music-teacher at
Cambridge, and his book, which bears the date of 1583, is now in the library of
Trinity College, Dublin. (D. iii., 30.)
"Shall Camillo then sing Willow, willow, willow?" says Middleton, in his Blurt
Master Constable. The ballad was quite proverbial, and parodied as late as 1686,
when, in Book ii. of Playford's Pleasant Musical Companion, we find " A poor soul
sate sighing near a gingerbread stall," &c.
p. 208. WHOOP ! DO ME NO HARM. The tune was arranged with variations by
W. Corkine, and printed in Lessons for the Lyra-Viol, &c., 1610. In the Famous
History of Friar Bacon, there is a ballad to the tune of " do me no harme, good
man." In the Pepys Collection, i. 152, is " The golden age, or an age of plain deal-
ing : to a pleasant new court tune, or Whoope, doe me no harme, good man ;" and at
p. 156, "The honest age," &c., "to the tune of The golden age" At p. 384, The
wiving age, to the tune of The golden age" At p. 400, " The Cooper of Norfolk, to
the tune of The wiving age" At p. 248, " A merry ballad of a rich maid that had
eighteen severall suitors of severall countries : otherwise called The scornefull Maid.
To the tune of Hoop, doe me no harme, good man" These ballads were printed by
J[ohn] T[rundle] or Henry Gosson.
In the second part of Westminster Drollery, 1672, is a ballad " Of Johnny and
Jinny," which seems to have been intended for the tune. It commences :
" The sweet pretty Jinny sate on a hill,
Where Johnny the swain her see,
He tun'd his quill, and sung to her still,
Whoop, Jinny, come down to me."
p. 213. SONG ON THE SPANISH ARMADA. This is also contained in "A Banquet
of Jests new and old," by Archie, the King's Jester, 8vo., Lond., 1657, and entitled
" An old song on the Spanish Armado in '88." It varies but slightly from the copy
in Westminster Drollery.
p. 219. LONDON is A FINE TOWN. Other versions of this ballad are in Ashmole's
MSS. 36 and 37, p. 318, and in Mr. Payne Collier's MS., time of James I.
In the Pepys Collection, i. 406, is " The Cuckowe's Comendation," &c., "a merry
Maying song, in praise of the cuckow : To the tune of Tlie buttoned smock," beginning
JEW'S TRUMP, DITTIES, ETC. 775
" Of all the birds that haunt the woods." The ballad of " The bonny Lass, or the
buttoned smock/' is printed in Pills to purge Melancholy, vi. 144, to the tune of
London is a fine town ; therefore, The buttoned strwck seems to be another name
for the tune.
p. 222. JEW'S TRUMP. I should have added that this is the old name for what we
now call the Jew's harp.
p. 222, note a. DITTIES are not only the phrases of melody that recur at the end of
every stanza, as in the passage quoted from Rowley's Match at Midnight, but often
signify the whole tune. So in P. Fletcher's Purple Island, c. 1 :
" But you, O Muses ! by soft Chamus sitting,
Your dainty songs unto his murmurs fitting,
Which bears the under-song unto your cheerful dittying."
p. 229. GREEN SLEEVES. Perhaps Triumph and Joy was another early name for
this popular air. The ballad of Queen Elizabeth at Tilbury is in stanzas of twelve
lines (like York, York for my money], and was sung to the tune of Triumph and Joy
(Collier's Old Ballads, p. 110) ; but others to the same air have but eight. See, for
instance :
" Mas Mault he is a gentleman,
And hath been since the world began."
(Rox., i. 342 ; Pepys, i. 427 ; or Evans's Old Ballads, iv. 220.)
York for my money is mentioned in Richard Brome's comedy, The Northern
Lasse, where the widow says " You said she sung and spoke it northernly I have a
great many southern songs already, but northern ayres nip it dead Yorhe, Yorke
for my money. 1 '
p. 232. GREEN SLEEVES AND PUDDING PIES. This is one of the songs enume-
rated in " Sportive Wit : The Muses Merriment, a new spring of lusty drollery,
jovial fancies, and a la mode lamponnes," 8vo., 1656. All there quoted is :
" Green sleeves and pudding pies,
And wot you not where "
But this does not agree, even so far, with the version in Boswell's Journal, and the
date of 1656 proves that the song could have no reference to Jacobitism.
p. 237. DEATH ! ROCK ME. Another song about Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII.
will be found in Harl. MSS., No. 2252, fol. 155. It is "A Ditty setting forth the
inconstancy of Fortune," and begins :
" In a freshe morninge, among the flowrys."
It is reprinted in Collett's Relics of Literature. In the same manuscript is a
ballad on the battle of Flodden Field (fol. 43, b.), called " The Lamentacione of the
Kynge of Scotts," beginning :
" As y lay musinge, myself alone ; "
arid Article 156 is on Cardinal Wolsey.
p. 240. BAR A FAUSTUS'S DREAM. In the Golden Garland of Princely Delights,
3rd edit., 1620, the song of " Come, sweet love, let sorrow cease," is entitled " The
Shepheard's Joy : to the tune of Bar a Faustus's Dream"
Another name for the tune is " Phoebus is long over the sea.'* It is found under
that title in Nederlandtsche Gedenck-Clanch, 1626 ; in Friesche Lust-Hof, 1634; and
776 APPENDIX.
in Dr. Camphuysen's Stichtelyche Hymen, 1647; sometimes with the addition of
Barra Faustus's Dream.
p. 211. SPANISH PA VAN. The " Engelsche indraeyende Dans Londesteyn" (the
turning dance of London) in Friesche Lust- Ho f, 1634, is another version of this tune.
The two first bars are identical. I love my low for low again, in the Skene MS., is
the same, after the first eight bars.
p. 244, note a. THE BANDORA is proved to have been strung with wire by a pas-
sage in Hey wood's Fair Maid of the Exchange, where he compares a lady's hair to
" bandora mires"
p. 256. THE HUNTER IN HIS CAREER. Among the ballads to this tune under the
title of Basse's Career, are " Hubert's Ghost " (Bagford Coll., 643, m. 10, fol. 49) ;
" The hasty Bridegroom " (Rox., ii. 208) ; and " Wit's never good till 'tis bought "
(Collier's Roxlurghe Ballads, p. 264).
p. 260, note a. JOHNNY ARMSTRONG. Another English ballad about this hero is
entitled " Johnny Armstrong's last Good-night; shewing how John Armstrong with
his eight-score men fought a bloody battle with the Scotch King, at Edenborough.
To a pretty Northern Tune : " commencing :
" Is there ever a man in all Scotland,
From the highest estate to the lowest degree,
That can shew himself before our King ?
Scotland is so full of treachery," &c.
A copy in the Bagford Collection (643, m. 10, p. 94), printed by and for W. 0[nley];
also in Old Ballads, 1727, i. 170, and in Evans's Old Ballads, iii. 101, 1810. The
tune is referred to in the Roxburghe Coll., ii. 499, where " The West-country Damosers
Complaint" is to be sung to it. Evans prints a third ballad (commencing "As it
fell out one Whitsunday"), under the impression that it relates to the same person,
but he is there transformed into Sir John Armstrong, and competes with Sir Michael
Musgrave, a Scotch knight, for the daughter of Lady Dacres. After winning her,
Armstrong is killed by his rival. See Rox., ii. 261, or Evans, iii. 107.
p. 262. OLD SIR SIMON THE KING. In " Hans Beer-pot, his invisible Comedie of
See me and see me not" (4to., 1618), Cornelius says that gentlemen did not formerly
avow drunkenness, but u now beggars say they are drunk like gentlemen." He adds
that he has heard " an old fantastique rime : "
" Gentlemen are sicke, and Parsons ill at ease,
But serving men are drunke, and all have one disease."
These lines are a paraphrase of the two following in " Old Sir Simon : "
" My hostess was sick of the mumps, the maid was ill at her ease,
The tapster was drunk in his dumps ; they were all of one disease."
Again in " The famous Historie of Fryer Bacon : "
" Lawyers they are sicke, and Fryers are ill at ease,
But poor men they are drunke, and all is one disease."
I am informed by Mr. Payne Collier that Friar Bacon was printed soon after
15SO, and these quotations increase the probability of Ritson's conjecture that the
" hey, ding a ding," mentioned in Lanehain's Letter in 1575, was Old Sir Simon.
DOWN IN THE NORTH COUNTRY, THE MERRY MILKMAIDS, ETC. 777
In Sportive Wit : The Muses' Merriment, 1656, the harden is quoted in a medley
of songs :
" Old Simon the king,
With a thread-bare coat and malmsey nose,
Sing heigh "
The last line quoted on p. 266, leads to another identification for the tune. In the
Roxburghe Collection, i. 170, is "Joy and sorrow mixt together; or a pleasant new
ditty, wherein you may find conceits that are pretty, to pleasure your mind : To the
tune of Such a Rogue mould be hang'd" It commences :
" Hang sorrow, let's cast away care,
For now I do mean to be merry,
We'll drink some good ale and strong beer,
With sugar, and claret, and sherry.
Now I'll have a wife of mine own," &c.
The second part of this ballad makes the young man complain, and wish in heart
he were unmarried again. M[artin] P[arker] wrote " Have among you, good women,"
<fec., to the tune of such a rogue. See Rox., i. 14:5. And I may add that " Time's
alteration," beginning " When this old cap was new," was by him.
p. 279. DOWN IN THE NORTH COUNTRY. The three tunes, " Down in the North
Country," " Ah, cruel, bloody fate," and " The merry Milkmaids " (pages 280, 281,
and 282), belong to the reign of Charles II., and not to that of Charles I. I was
misled as to the date by supposing " Within the North Country," and " Down in the
North Country," to be the same tune, for the words of the one could be sung to the
tune of the other.
"Ah, cruel, bloody fate" is by Purcell, and was sung between the acts in Nat.
Lee's play of Theodosius, 1680. Of the two remaining, the one is merely an alteration,
and the other an arrangement of that air.
p. 282. THE MERRY MILKMAIDS. The print in Tempest's Cryes of London
coincides with the description of the milkmaids given by Misson in his Observations
on his travels in England, in the reigns of James II. and William III. He says,
* On the first of May, and the five and six days following, all the pretty young
sountry girls that serve the town with milk, dress themselves up very neatly, and
borrow abundance of silver plate, whereof they make a pyramid, which they adorn
with ribbands and flowers, and carry upon their heads instead of their common milk-
pails. In this equipage, accompanied by some of their fellow milkmaids, and a bag-
pipe or fiddle, they go from door to door, dancing before the houses of their customers,
in the midst of boys and girls that follow them in troops, and everybody gives them
something." (Ozell's translation, 8vo., 1719, p. 307.) We are told that during Mary's
reign, the princess, afterwards Queen Elizabeth, had little opportunity for meditation
3r amusement : that she was closely guarded, yet sometimes suffered to walk in the
gardens of the palace. " In this situation," says Holinshed, " no marvell if she,
hearing upon a time out of her garden at Woodstock, a certain milkmaid singing
pleasantlie, wished herself to be a milkmaid as she was ; saying that her case was
better, and life merrier." The remark gave birth to an elegant ballad by Shenstone.
p. 283. MORRIS DANCE. The first part of this tune will be found in the form of
v tune for chimes, in Hawkins's History, 8vo., p. 770. Hawkins supposes it to have
778 APPENDIX.
been composed by Stephen Jeffries about 1680, but I have traced it about forty years
before Jeffries was born. It is probable, however, that Engelsche Klocke Dans should
be translated English Chime-tune, and not English Morris Dance, as I had supposed
from the mention of bells.
p. 283. AMARILLIS TOLD HER SWAIN is a song in Porter's play, The Villain, 1663.
p. 288. THE HEALTHS, In the novel of Woodstock, Sir Walter Scott makes
Charles II. sing this song when in disguise ; but Sir Walter changed the last line of
the stanza to " While the goblet goes merrily round ; " and the alteration does not
suit the tune.
p. 289. MALL PEATLY. D'Urfey's song of " Gillian of Croydon" is perhaps an
alteration of another under the same title, which is included in "A Complete Collection
of old and new English and Scotch Songs," i. 126, 1735. The latter commences,
" Fame loudly through Europe passes."
p. 291. WHEN THE STORMY WINDS. In the Pepys Collection, i. 418 (No. 215),
is another version, entitled " The praise of Sailors here set forth, with their hard
fortunes which doe befall them on the seas, when Landmen sleep safe in their beds :
To a pleasant new tune" This was printed for J. Wright, and begins, " As I lay
musing in my bed." The version from which Ritson prints, called "Neptune's
raging fury," &c., bears the initials of J. P., and was printed by T. Mabb for Ric.
Burton.
The tune of The stormy winds do blow was also used for " England's Valour and
Holland's Terrour, being an encouragement for seamen and souldiers to serve his
Majesty in his wars against the Dutch," &c.
p. 294:. RED BULL. In the Epistle Dedicatory to his Histriama&tix^ Prynne says that
" two old play-houses, the Fortune and the Red Bull, have been lately re-edified and
enlarged, and one new theatre, White Friars play-house, erected." He adds that the
stationers informed him that "above forty -thousand play-books had been printed
within two years, they being more vendible than the choicest sermons,'*
p. 299. THE QUEEN'S OLD COURTIER., Southey remarks very justly on the com-
plaints of the decay of hospitality, that " while rents were received in kind, they must
have been chiefly consumed in kind; at least there could be no accumulation of dis-
posable wealth." He supposes this mode of payment to have fallen generally into
disuse during the reign of James I. Without doubt, many of the poor would feel the
change,
p. 302. JOAN, TO THE MAYPOLE. This tune is also printed in Pills to purge
Melancholy (i. 262, 1719), to a song by D'Urfey, commencing, " The clock had struck."
p. 329, note. DANCING BARRISTERS. See more of this custom in Roger North's
Discourse upon the Laws, p. 64 et seq.
p. 331. MAD TOM. " At the Club of Choice Spirits, Mr. Spriggins gave us Mad
TOM A BEDLAM, COME YOU NOT FROM NEWCASTLE? ETC. 779
Tom in all its glory, and as he required chains to act in, the president of the club
ordered in the jack-chain." Goldsmith's Essays.
p. 332. TOM A BEDLAM. This tune had several other names, two of which were
Fly, Brass, and The jovial Tinker. In the Pepys Collection, i. 460, is " A pleasant
new songe of a joviall Tinker, to a pleasant new tune called Fly Brasse." It is in ten-
line stanzas, and commences, " There was a joviall tinker." In the same volume, and
immediately preceding it, is " The famous Rat Ketcher, with his travels into France,
and his return to London: To the tune of The Joviall Tinker" It commences
:< The was a rare rat-catcher." Both were " imprinted by John Trundle," and the
latter, when he lived " at the signe of the Nobody in Barbican."
The following were also sung to the tune : " The Oakerman," beginning, " The star
that shines by daylight " ( Westminster Drollery, Part ii., 1671) ; "I am a rogue,
and a stout one " (written out to the tune in Gamble's MS.) ; " Tobacco's a musician,
and in a pipe delighteth" (Nicholls's Progresses, or Rimbault's Little Book of
Songs and Ballads, p. 175); "All in the Land of Essex" (Sir John Denham's
Poems, 1671) ; " There was a jovial Tinker, dwelt in the town of Turvey " (Merry
Drollery Complete, Part i., p. 27, 1670); and "The zealous Puritan" (Loyal
Songs, i. 4, 1731).
The " Dr. G," master of St. Paul's School, who is celebrated for his flogging
propensities (p. 333), must have been Dr. Gale, who was chosen high master in
1676, and held the appointment for twenty-five years. He died April 8, 1702, and
is mentioned both by Pepys and Evelyn.
Some copies of the tune make the thirteenth and fourteenth bars almost the same
as the ninth and tenth, and it is better suited to some of the songs in that form.
p. 339. COME YOU NOT FROM NEWCASTLE ? The reference to this tune in Friar
Bacon, carries back the date to the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Robert Greene, who
dramatised the pamphlet, died in 1592.
p. 344. BUFF COAT. The burden of a ballad entitled "The kind-hearted
creature," seems particularly suitable to this air :
"Sing, boys! drink, boys!
Why should not we be merry ?
I'll tell you of a bonny lass,
And her love beyond the ferry."
In Thompson's Country Dances, i. 59, the tune is found under the name of Miss
Peachey, and in ii. 77, under that of The Retreat.
p. 354. NORTHERN NANCY. D'Urfey alludes to the dance in his song, " Jolly
Roger Twangdillo of Plowden Hall" (Pills, i. 20, 17L9) :
" She danc'd Northern Nancy,
A.sk'&parlez vous Fransay," &c.
The ballad of Mock-Beggars' Hall is quoted as " to the tune of Is it not your
Northern Nanny ? or Sweet is the lass that loves me" The last name is derived
from a ballad by Martin Parker, entitled " Love's Solace, to a new court tune "
(Rox., i. 102) ; or, as in some later copies, " Sweet is the lass that loves me : A young
780 APPENDIX.
man's resolution to prove constant to his sweetheart. To the tune of Omnia vincit
amor." It commences :
" The damask rose, or lily fair, The fairest dames she doth excel
The cowslip and the pansy, In all the world that may be,
With my true love cannot compare Which makes me thus her praises tell,
For beauty or for fancy. So sweet is the lass that loves me."
The tune of Omnia vincit amor is to be found in the Skene manuscript, and
perhaps it is also the air referred to under the name of The Damask Rose, as the
ballad commences with those words.
p. 356. GRAMMERCY PENNY. This name is probably derived from a ballad
in the Pepys Collection, i. 218, " Oh gramercy Penny : Being a Lancashire ditty,
and chiefly penn'd To prove that a penny's a man's best friend : To the tune
of Its better late thrive than never." It is subscribed L. P., and " printed for
M. Trundle, widdow." The first line is " When I call to mind those jovial days."
p. 362. GATHER YOUR ROSEBUDS is included in Play ford's Select Musical Ayres,
1652, and a ballad to the tune will be found in the Bagford Collection, 643,
m. 11, p. 57.
p. 362. THREE MERRY BOYS ARE WE. The words are in the Antidote to
Melancholy, 1661, and are parodied in D'Urfey's play, The Modern Prophets.
p. 363. CUPID'S COURTESY. This ballad was licensed, with others, to Coles,
Wright, Vere, and Gilbertson, during the Protectorate, viz., on 13th March, 1655.
p. 367. SHACKLEY-HAY was entered at Stationers' Hall on 16th March, 1612, to
" Mystres White, late wife of Mr. Edward White, sen.," as " A pleasant songe of
Yonge Palmus and fayr Sheldra."
p. 370. FRANKLIN is FLED AWAY was parodied as late as 1782 in The Convivial
Songster, and the tune there printed. The words commence, " let no eyes be dry,
hone, hone."
p. 390. ROBIN HOOD. " When Sherwood forest was surveyed in the reign of
James I., it consisted of 95,117 acres." (Nichols s Progresses, ii. 460.)
p. 408. OLD CUSTOM OF KISSING. Philip, second Earl of Chesterfield, says in his
Short Notes, that, in 1662, when the Infanta of Portugal was met by the Duke of
York, afterwards James II., " His royal Highness, out of compliment to the King,
would not salute her, to the end that his Majesty might be the first man that ever had
received that favour ; she coming out of a country where it was not the fashion."
Pepys, however, tells us that within ten days of their arrival in England, the
Portuguese ladies who came with the Queen had " learnt to kiss and look freely up
and down," and he adds, " I do believe they will soon forget the recluse practice of
their own country." " To kiss and to be kissed," says Burton, " is as a burden to a
song, and a most forcible battery, a great allurement, a fire in itself." (Love Melan-
choly, Part iii., Sec. 2.)
MARK HOW THE BLUSHFUL MORN, MARTIN PARKER, ETC. 781
p. 4:14:. MARK HOW THE BLUSHFUL MORN. Although attributed to Charles I. in
the manuscript, the music of this song is printed with the name of Nicholas Lanier
in Select Ayres and Dialogues, Book ii., 1669, and I suspect the printed authority to
be better than the manuscript.
p. 418. MARTIN PARKER. In 1640, the London petition complained of " the
warming of lascivious, idle, and unprofitable books and pamphlets, play -books and
ballads, as namely, Ovid's Fits of Love, The Parliament of Women, Barns's Poems,
and Parker's Ballads." (Southey's Common-place Book, p. 531.) In the intro-
ductory poem to Austen's Naps upon Parnassus, 8vo., 1658, Parker is styled " The
Ballad-Maker Laureat of London." One of his little books, " The most admirable
Historic of that most renowned Christian worthy, Arthur, King of the Britaines,"
:,*emained long in popular favour.
p. 419. THOMAS HERBERT. The author of " Mercurie's Message defended against
the vain, foolish, and absurd cavils of Thomas Herbert, a ridiculous ballad -maker,"
accuses Herbert of having written Rome's ABC against Archbishop Laud, and
says, " In a blind alehouse, I heard a crew of roaring ballad-singers trouling out a
merry ballad, called The more knaves the better company. And one among the rest
cried out, ' Well sung, Herbert,' who, as it seems, bore up the base among them, and
in that deboist [debauched] manner consumeth his time ; and when his money is all
spent (as for most part it is six or seven times a week), writes a new merry book, a
good godly ballad, or some such excellent piece of stufife, even as the droppings of
the spigot enliveneth his muddy muse to put his feeble purse into fresh stock again."
p. 425, 1. 26. THE GOOD OLD CAUSE. The Puritans' definition of their by-word, "The
good old Cause," was " religion and the laws." (See Dryden's Marriage a la Mode,
Act iv., sc. 3.) They who sided with the king called themselves " Tantivy-boys " and
" Tantivitiers," the name of " Cavaliers " being commonly applied to the upper
classes only.
p. 426, 1. 1. THE CLEAN CONTRARY WAY. There are many more ballads to the
tune of The clean contrary way. One in the Roxburghe Collection, ii. 571, was
printed in 1681, and another, in the third volume, has the burden of The clean con-
trary way, and the name of the tune given as Hey, loys, up go we. This is entitled
" Animadversions on the Lady Marquess," and begins
" The lady marquess and her gang But if she be, 'tis of the Sluts,
Are most in favour seen, For all her fine array ;
With coach and men on her to tend, Her honour reaches to the skies,
As if she were a queen. But the clean contrary way" &c.
"Printed for J. Jordan, at the Angel in Guiltspur Street."
p. 430. VIVE LE ROY. In Mrs. Behn's comedy, The Round-heads, or The good
old Cause, she twice represents the mob as shouting " Vive le Roy." Evelyn tells
us in his diary that when James 1 1. made his first speech to the Houses of Parliament,
they answered by cries of Vive le Roi. Other instances of its use have been cited
under the head of God save the King (ante p. 699).
782 APPENDIX.
p. 431. LOVE LIES BLEEDING. An old song on the times of James II. and Wm. III.,
to this tune, will be found in Notes and Queries, 2nd series, ii. 43. It begins :
" Lay by your reason,
Truly out of season," &c.
p. 437. WHEN THE KING ENJOYS HIS OWN. In Daniel Wright's Country Dances,
i. 32, the tune is entitled Trusty Dick. " An excellent new song of the unfortunate
Whigs : to the tune of The Xing enjoys," &c., is in the Roxburghe Collection, iii. 914,
"printed for S. Maurel," in 1682. It begins
"The Whigs are but small, and of no good race."
p. 451. I LIVE NOT WHERE I LOVE. The late Douglas Jerrold and his circle of
friends would often call upon Hazlitt to entertain them by singing a West-country
version of this ballad, which he gives with all the richness of the West-country dialect.
Jerrold was particularly amused at the relation between cause and effect in the second
stanza, and used to call it " sublime." I am indebted to Mr. Hazlitt for the copy.
" Come, all you young maids as live at a dis- My heart should change and be more strange
Many a mile from off your swain, [tance, If ever I'd inconstant prove ;
Come and assist me at this very instant My heart is with him altogether,
For to pass away some time ; Though I live not where I love.
Singing sweetly and completely, Farewell, lads, and farewell, lasses,
Songs of pleasure from above, NQ w j ^ks I ' ve got my choice,
My heart is with him altogether, j wm away to yonder mountain>
Though I live not where I love. For , tig there l hearg his yoice<
If all the world was of one religion, If he hollow, I will follow
Many a living thing should die Through the world as is so wide,
Before that I would forget my true love, For young Thomas did me promise
Or in any way his love deny. I should be his lawful bride.
A comparison will prove that the above is a corruption of the ballad which was
printed more than two hundred years ago by Gosson ; but in all probability, it was
kept in print very long after that time, and may be even now. Another current West-
country version begins, " Over hills and over mountains."
p. 454. OH ! FOR A HUSBAND. When Shakespeare makes Beatrice say, in Much
ado about Nothing, " I am sunburned, I may sit in a corner, and cry Heigh ho, for
a husband" it is by no means improbable that he alludes to the burden of this song.
The manuscript from which it is derived is a collection of songs and ballads that
were popular in the reigns of James I. and Charles I. The writer flourished about
forty years after Shakespeare. Oh! for a husband is included in "A. Complete
Collection of Old and New English and Scotch Songs, with their respective tunes
prefixed," i. 91, 1735, and in all the editions of Pills to purge Melancholy, but there
reset by Akeroyde.
p. 455. AN OLD WOMAN CLOTHED IN GREY. In Walsh's Country Dancing Master,
iii. 86, this air is entitled Unconstant Roger. The song, "Let Oliver now be
forgotten," is by Tom D'Urfey, and included in his Nero Collection of Songs and
Poems, 8vo., 1683.
p. 456. I WOULD I WERE IN MY OWN COUNTRY. This tune is included in Queen
Elizabeth's Virginal Book, under the name of the Quodling's Delight.
THE BROOM, THE BONNY BROOM, ETC. 783
p. 458. THE BROOM, THE BONNY BROOM. In The Carnival, a comedy by Thomas
Porter, 4to., 1664, a song " to the tune of The broom, the bonny broom" begins thus :
"The beard, the beard, the bonny, bonny beard,
Oh ! it was of wondrous growth ;
But, eating too fast, his spoon he misplac'd,
And scalded it off with the broth."
" An excellent new song, entitled The new Song of the Broom of Cowden Knows," is
in the possession of Mr. David Laing, who dates the copy " circa 1716." It com-
mences, " Hard fate that I should banisht be." This would be about eight years
earlier than the " new words " in the Tea Table Miscellany, " How blyth each morn
was I to see."
p. 464. CHRISTMAS is MY NAME. The flocking of the nobility to London at
Christmas, complained of in the ballad, was the occasion of a proclamation by James I.,
which is thus noticed in a letter from Mr. Chamberlain to Sir Dudley Carleton ?
bearing date Dec. 21, 1622 : " Divers Lords and personages of quality have made
means to be dispensed withall for going into the country this Christmas according to
the proclamation ; But it will not be granted, so that they pack away on all sides for
fear of the worst." (Nichols's Progresses of James I.)
p, 478, 1. 26. SIR W. DAVENANT'S SIEGE OF RHODES. On the 9th September,
1653, The Siege of ^Rhodes was entered at Stationers' Hall, with many other plays,
to " Mr. Mosely." On 27th August, 1656, it was again entered as " The Siege of
Rhodes by Sir William Davenant, acted at the back of Rutland House," &c., and then
printed by Henry Herringman. In the preface to The Fairy Queen, an opera by
Purcell, " represented at the Queen's theatre, by their Majesties' servants," is the
following passage : " That Sir William Davenant's Siege of Rhodes was the first
opera we ever had in England, no man can deny ; and it is indeed a perfect opera ;
there being this difference between an opera and a tragedy; that the one is the story
sung with proper action, the other spoken." (4to., 1692.) If Dr. Burney had read
this preface, he might have avoided his error about the first operas in England.
p. 482. Row THE BOAT, NORMAN. The missing words to this "roundel" are
supplied by Skelton, in his Bowge at Court, where Harvy Hafter says :
" I wolde be mery, what wynde that ever blowe,
Heve and how rombelow, row the bote, Norman, rowe ! "
(Dyce's Skelton, i. 40.) The commencing with " Heave and ho, rumbelow," is the
material part. It was evidently the burden or under-song, and sung on the key-note
by each of the three voices in turn. The words should, therefore, stand thus :
Heave and ho, rum-be-low, Row the boat, Nor-man, row, Row to thy le-man.
The second singer begins two bars after the first, and the third two bars after the
second. They continue in that order, without stopping at the end of the line, but
recommencing and singing it over many times. " Our sailors at Newcastle, in
heaving their anchors, have [still] their * Heave and ho, rumbelowj " says D'Israeli,
in his Curiosities of Literature.
784 APPENDIX.
p. 483. Now GOD BE WITH OLD SIMEON, OR HEY, JOLLY JENKIN. This is printed
as an old catch in vol. iv. of Ramsay's Tea Table Miscellany, but thus differing in
the latter part :
"To whom drink you, Sir knave, Ho! jolly Jenkin, I spy a knave drinking,
Turn the timber like the lave ; Come, troll the bowl to me."
I am informed by the Rev. Thomas Corser, F.S.A., that the catch is alluded to in
Ulpian Fulwell's Eyghth Part of the Liberall Science, 4to., 1579.
p. 488. CONDUCTING BY A WOMAN. The " woman with a rod in her hand," men-
tioned by Pepys as " keeping time to the musique," was a puppet. I mistook the
word " motion," in a hastily-written extract, for " notion," although, on collation, the
word was corrected in the text.
p. 490, 1. 25. SCOTCH TUNES IN THE TIME OP CHARLES II. In Mr. Halli well's
Collection is a ballad entitled "A loyal subject's admonition, or A true song of
Brittain's Civil Wars," &c. " To the the tune of General MoncKs right March, that
was sounded before him from Scotland to London, or The Highlanders' March' 1
" Printed for F. Grove, on Snow Hill." The Highlanders' March is one of the three
tunes I have named as in The Dancing Master of 1665. The words of " Johnny,
cock thy beaver," are so much in the style of " Jockey is grown a gentleman," that
I think them rather a good-humoured joke upon the Scotch, than a genuine Scotch
song. The following is Herd's version (Scottish SongSj ii. 205, 1776) :
" When first my dear Johny came to this town, Cock up your beaver, cock up your beaver,
He had a blue bonnet, it wanted the crown ; Hey, my Johny lad, cock up your beaver;
But now he has gotten a hat and a feather, Cock up your beaver, and cock it nae wrang,
Hey, my Johny lad, cock up your beaver : We'll a' to England ere it be lang."
p. 495. THE KING'S JIG. " A new song in praise of the loyal Company of
Stationers, who (after the general forfeit), for their singular loyalty, obtain'd the first
Charter of London, 1684. To the tune of Winchester Wedding" is printed in the
180 Loyal Songs, 1685 and 1694. The worshipful Company of Stationers obtained
a restitution of their Charter, in consequence of their " dutiful submission " to the
Court.
D'Urfey's song, " The Winchester Wedding," was also printed on broadsides with
music. The tune (besides the authorities mentioned) is in Salter's Genteel Companion
for the Hecorder, 1683: in the ballad -operas of Flora; The Devil of a Dulie ;
The Mock Doctor ; The Quakers' Opera ; TJie Highland Fair ; The Jovial Crew ;
and many more : in The Convivial Songster, 1782 ; and the words in various song-
books of the last century.
A tune called " The King's Jigg," in Blaikie's manuscript, is not the same. It
refers, in all probability, to some later King than Charles II.
p. 498. THE WINE-COOPER'S DELIGHT. The duty imposed upon French wines
in 1681, met with great opposition at the time, and was deemed quite prohibitory.
A ballad-writer says :
" French wine's prohibition meant no other thing
Than to poison the subject and beggar the King."
And a writer in the Poems on Affairs of State:
" As well may Dutchmen without brandy fight,
As English poets without claret write."
WILLY WAS SO BLITHE A LAD, ETC. 785
p. 507. WILLY WAS so BLITHE A LAD. In Youth's Delight on the Flagelet, this
is called Billy was as blyth a lad.
p. 509. JENNY, GIN. This is a song by Mrs. A. Behn, in her comedy, The City
Heiress, commencing, "Ah, Jenny, gin your eyes do kill." (1682.) The tune is in
Playford's Choice Ayres, v. 25, 1684:, and in all editions of Pills to purge
Melancholy.
p. 513. THE LEATHER BOTTEL. The song on Queen Mary here referred to,
written by " William Forrest, Freest" was, no doubt, W. Forrest, of Christ Church,
Oxford, who was Chaplain to Queen Mary on her accession to the throne.
p. 515. TORN AGAIN, WHITTINGTON. Some suppose Sir Richard Whittington to
have laid the foundation of his fortune by a coasting vessel, called a Cat. In the
Encyclopaedia Londinensis, a Cat is thus defined : " A ship employed in the coal
trade, distinguished by a narrow stern, projecting quarters, and a deck waist. These
vessels are generally built remarkably strong, and carry from four to six hundred
tons (or, in the language of the mariners, from twenty to thirty keels) of coals."
Cat-water, at Plymouth, is the harbour for coasters, traders, colliers, &c., &c., so called
to this day.
p. 52i, 1. 3. YOUNG JEMMY. The song commencing, " Young Jemmy was a
lad," is by Mrs. A. Behn, and included in her Poems upon several occasions, Svo.,
1684:. Another song on the Duke of Monmouth was printed for R. Shuter in 1682,
and entitled " Jemmy and Anthony : to the tune of Young Jemmy'' (Rox., iii. 917.)
It commences :
" Monmouth is a brave lad, Long may he live in happy years,
The like's not in our city ; Victorious may he be,
He is no Tory blade, And prosper long those noble peers,
Give ear unto my ditty ! Monmouth and S/iaftesbury."
p. 527. MY LODGING is ON THE COLD GROUND. The parody on this song, which
was sung by Nell Gwyn in Howard's play, All mistaken, contains a personal allusion
to her rival, Moll Davis, who was short and fat. (See Cunningham's Story of Nell
Gwyn, p. 60, edit. 1852.) It commences :
" My lodging is on the cold boards, But that which troubles me most is
And wonderful hard is my fare ; The fatness of my dear," &c.
Between 1713 and 1775, the original song may be found in The Hive, 1726 and 1732,
and in Vocal Miscellany, 1734:. Soon after 1775, the air was introduced by Giordani
as the larghetto movement of the third of his first set of concertos for the harpsichord,
Op. 14, and on the 15th May, 1794, the song was entered at Stationers' Hall, as sung
by Mrs. Harrison at Harrison and Kny vett's concerts ; so that it may be traced in
constant, favour in England from the time of Charles II. down to the present day.
I cannot find a shadow of reason for calling it an Irish air. The best Irish autho-
rities disclaim it, and the air may even have been unknown in Ireland before Giordani
went to reside there, for any proof we have to the contrary. Giordani went to Dublin
in 1779, and the second set of his concertos was entered in London at Stationers'
Hall on the 12th February of that year. After the failure of his theatrical specula-
tion, Giordani commenced teaching in Dublin, and, introducing his own music,
attained great repute.
786 APPENDIX.
p. 536. THE NORTHUMBERLAND BAGPIPES. In Apollo's Banquet, 1693, this tune
is entitled "A new dance in the play of The Marriage-Hater matclid." This
comedy is by D'Urfey, and was printed in 1692.
WHEN BUSY FAME. There are many more ballads than I have named to this tune.
See, for instance, the 2nd vol. of the Roxburghe Collection, pages 7, 45, 68, 224, 322,
and 445.
p. 547. THE WAITS. Several instances of holding land by wait-service, or by
payments for that service, will be found in Blount's Ancient Tenures. Thus, in
Norfolk, Thomas Spelman held the manors of Narborough and Wingrave by knight-
service, and paying fourteen shillings annually for way te- fee and castle -guard ; and
John Le Marshall held the manor of Buxton by paying a mark every six weeks for
guarding Norwich Castle, and fifteen shillings quarterly for way te -fee at the said
caetle.
p. 552. JACK MET HIS MOTHER. This ballad was re-written in other metre,
under the title of Hodge of the Mill and buxom Nell. See Tea Table Miscellany,
iv. 379.
p. 559. THE NORTHERN LASS. The Scotch sing the song of Muirland Willie to
this tune, not to the slow version, which is evidently the original, but to the air in
its abbreviated dancing form. We do not find Muirland Willie sung to it until after
it had been turned into a lively air by D'Urfey, and, although the words of the Scotch
song are old, we have no indication of any tune to which they were to be sung in early
copies. They seem to have been intended for Green Sleeves, more likely than any
other air. Muirland Willie was first printed to this tune by Thomson, in his Orpheus
Caledonius, folio, entered at Stationers' Hall on 5th January, 1725-6. The tune had
then been published, as Great Lord Frog, in Walsh's 24 New Country Dances for
the year 1713 ; with words in vol. i. of The Merry Musician, dated 1716, and in
vol. i. of Pills to purge Melancholy, 1719.
p. 670. LILLIBURLERO. After sifting the evidence as to the origin of this tune,
I have no hesitation in ascribing it to Henry Purcell. In the preface to Part ii. of
MusicKs Handmaid, H. Playford says, " I have accordingly, with much care, com-
pleated this Second Part, consisting of the newest Tunes and Grounds composed by
our ablest masters, Dr. John Blow, Mr. Henry Purcell, &c., the impression being
carefully revised and corrected by the said Mr. Henry Purcell." The distinction
between compositions and arrangements is clearly drawn in the book. Thus,
" A Theater tune " is set (i.e., arranged for the virginals) by Dr. John Blow, who was
not a theatrical composer ; but Lilliburlero bears the name of H. Purcell without
any such qualification.
p. 597. COME AND LISTEN TO MY DITTY. A claim has been made for Falconer, the
author of The Shipwreck, to the song of Cease, rude Boreas, on the ground that
G. A. Stevens had access to Falconer's manuscripts after his death. This supposition
is quite set at rest by dates, for " Cease, rude Boreas, by Mr. Stevens, Tune, Come
and listen to my ditty" is Song 207, p. 291, of The Muses' Delight, 8vo., Liverpool,
1754. Eight songs by G. A. Stevens are there printed together. Falconer was in
FAIREST JENNY, DANCING THE HAY, ETC. 787
the merchant service till 1762, when he first came into notice by the publication of
The Shipwreck. He was lost at sea in 1769. Stevens merely re -introduced his own
song in his Marine Medley of 1772.
p. 617. FAIREST JENNY. In The Devil to pay, this tune is entitled Take a kiss
or twa, from the second part of the first stanza.
p. 629. DANCING THE HAY. In Chaucer's third book of Fame, among the Court
entertainments were pipers to assist those who chose to dance either " love-dances,
springs, or rayes," and in Barclay's Eclogues, 1508, a shepherd says, " I can dance
the raye ; I can both pipe and sing." Quere, is raye an earlier name for hay ?
p. 64:9. O MOTHER, A HOOP. Hoops seem to have come into fashion about 1711.
There is an entry at Stationers' Hall, July 18, 1711, as follows : " The Farthingale
reviv'd, or More work for the Cooper. A Panegyrick upon the late, but most
admirable invention of the hoop-pettycoat. Written at the Bath in the year 1711."
p. 652. VICAR OF BRAY. Simon Aleyn has long had the credit of being the pro-
verbial Vicar of Bray, but it appears from various authorities quoted in Athcente
Cantab, (i. 107), that Simon Symonds was instituted to the vicarage on the
lith March, 1522-3, and died about 1551 ; therefore, the story cannot apply to any
vicar of that time.
p. 700, 1. 32. WORDS OP ANTHEMS. I was mistaken in saying that the words of
anthems " are never in rhyme ;" there are many old exceptions to the rule, and some-
times, although printed as prose, they are really in rhyme.
p. 715. LOVELY NANCY. I observe that in Book 2 of Oswald's Caledonian
Pocket Companion, this tune is printed as " Lovely Nancy, by Mr. Oswald." I have
no doubt that he meant to claim the variations only, for he had previously printed the
air, with some difference in the arrangement, in his Curious Scots' Tunes for a violin
andjlute* and then without making any such claim. Oswald has been taken to task
by Mr. G. F. Graham, in the notes on Wood's Songs of Scotland, for having
similarly placed his name before Scotch tunes of which it is impossible that he can
have been the author.
I have seen many half-sheet copies of the song of Lovely Nancy, but never with
an author's name, and I doubt whether any one could properly claim it, for it seems
to be only an alteration of Ye virgins so pretty (ante p. 682).
Lovely Nancy was turned into a Country Dance in vol. iii. of Johnson's Collection,
1744, and the song is included in Walsh's Select Aires for the Guitar. There are
five stanzas, of which the following are the first three :
" How can you, lovely Nancy, thus cruelly slight
A swain who is wretched when banish'd your sight ?
Who for your sake alone thinks life worth his care,
But which soon, if you frown on, must end in despair.
* This collection wai printed by John Simpson at the who examines the remainder of the selection. It was
Bass Viol and Flute in Sweeting's Alley. ICTs difficult not the fashion of that day to attempt accuracy in the
to know why the tune should have been included iu a slightest degree,
collection of Scotch tunes, but no one will be surprised
3 D
788 APPENDIX.
If you meant thus to torture, O why did your eyes
Once express so much fondness, and sweetly surprise ?
By their lustre inflam'd, I could never helieve,
As they shed such mild influence, they e'er would deceive.
But, alas ! like the pilgrim bewilder'd in night,
Who perceives a false splendour at distance invite,
O'erjoyed hastens on, pursues it, and dies,
A like ruin attends me if away Nancy flies,"
p. 715. HEARTS OP OAK. Boswell, in his visit to Corsica, says that the Corsicans
requested him to sing them an English song, and he sang them Hearts of Oak.
"Never did I see men so delighted with a song as the Corsicans were with Hearts of
Oak. ' Cuore di querco/ cried they, ' Bravo, Inglese.' It was quite a joyous riot.
I fancied myself to be a recruiting sea-officer I fancied all my chorus of Corsicans
aboard the British fleet." Croker's edit, of Boswell's Life of Johnson, x, 233.
CHARACTERISTICS OF ENGLISH NATIONAL AIRS,
AND SUMMARY.
THERE are two principal causes which affect the national music of countries, the
first, the character of the musical instruments in c 
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